Since 2018, the Campbell Clinic Foundation, in partnership with Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, has led the Center of Excellence for Cerebral Palsy Care and Research, a comprehensive outpatient clinic focused on serving children with cerebral palsy.
Campbell Clinic pediatric orthopaedic surgeons, David Spence, MD, and William Warner, Jr., MD, serve as co-directors for a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, therapists, seating and mobility specialists and orthotists who work together to serve 425 patients with cerebral palsy (CP) each year. This “one-stop shop” for CP care is the only one of its kind in the Mid-South.
CP develops as a result of a static injury to the brain either prior to or during birth, and can vary greatly in type and severity. It can affect the child’s ability to walk, talk, or even sit without pain.
“The goal for everyone at the CP Center is to assist in making every child with CP better and as independent as possible,” explains Dr. Warner. “We also guide patients’ families as they navigate care for their child from birth until they are adults.”
Relationships with local and national partners, networks and centers have helped advance our understanding of CP and CP patient care. Since 2020, the Plough Foundation-funded equipment closet, aka “Mobility Lab,” assists families in securing age- and size-appropriate equipment for their child. In 2022, the CP Center joined the Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN), the largest collab- oration of hospitals and community members working together to improve health outcomes for people with CP. Beginning in 2023, a Semmes Murphy neurosurgeon will join the CP Center to offer spasticity management for patients.
Meanwhile, research covers everything from patients’ pulmonary function to vaccine compliance to bone fragility. In 2022 alone, “Let’s Get Everyone Moving and Keep Them Moving Throughout the Lifespan” and “Using a Telephone Screening Tool to Identify Bone Health Risk in Children with Cerebral Palsy” were presented at the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) 2022 Annual Meeting.
The CP Center is possible thanks to the transformational $1 million commemorative grant from the Children’s Foundation of Memphis and hundreds of generous donors and partners.
What’s next? The Center must expand to meet the complex needs of more Mid-South children with CP and their families.
One mom explained, “Everyone was super helpful and wonderful. I was very thankful that everyone could see my daughter all at once. This was very convenient since we travel to come here.” Patients and families need you.
Will you help us?
On behalf of the hundreds of patients and families served since 2018, thank you to all who have generously supported the CP Center.