Ex-Children’s Hospital patient hopes ‘Jacob’s Bravery Box’ helps other kids cope
Jacob’s heart-warming project was aided by classmates at Utica’s Switzer Elementary School.
The horrible stomach pains, biopsies and other hospital procedures he endured when he was 4 years old are seared into Jacob Efthemiou’s memory.
The Shelby Township boy was diagnosed in 2020 with Henoch-Schonlein purpura, or HSP, inflammation of the blood vessels in your skin, joints, intestines and kidneys, after a series of doctors’ office visits and, eventually, a referral to Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
Now recovered, he also remembers the kindness of the doctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital staff at Children’s Hospital of Michigan — and the little toys they gave him to help him through that traumatizing experience.
Paying that kindness forward, the 7-year-old this year created and donated 125 gift bags, tenderly stored in a large box called “Jacob’s Bravery Box.”
Children’s staff gives the bags to young patients facing their own medical challenges, who are seen in Detroit and at multiple other Children’s Hospital of Michigan pediatric medical offices across the metro-Detroit area.
Heart-warming gift bags
On Monday, the gift bags were at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Specialty Center on Beaubien Street in Detroit, outpatient medical offices and an infusion center across the street from the main hospital.
“They’d say, ‘We have to do this, but if you’re really brave, I have this little toy,’ and it really made a big difference,” said his mother, Danielle Efthemiou, of Shelby Township.
“The following year, he said, ‘Could we put some things together like what I got and help kids feel better?’ He’s like an old soul, the things he comes up with.”
That year, when Jacob was 5, they packed up trinkets for 25 gift bags and delivered them to his favorite Children’s Hospital of Michigan Nephrology nurse, Nancy Hanes, and pediatric nephrologist Dr. Rossana Baracco, director of the Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship Program at the hospital.
Uplifting gifts
Nurse Nancy, Dr. Baracco and the kidney team at Children’s Hospital of Michigan provide specialized care for nephrology patients during more than 4,000 outpatient visits each year for kidney and urinary tract issues, as well as hypertension, which often originates in the kidneys in children.
Lofty goals
“In first grade, he said, ‘I want to do 100 bags and I want my friends to do it with me,’ and I was like whoa, whoa,” Danielle said, laughing.
But his family and friends rose to the occasion, donating enough cans to Jacob’s can drive – and helping him take the cans in to be counted – to fill Jacob’s Bravery Box for two years.
This year, Jacob shopped and his second-grade classmates at Utica’s Switzer Elementary formed an assembly line like pros, producing dozens of boxes to be shared with other young children facing medical issues of their own.
“The kids understand what it’s like to help in any way, and this can make kids feel better,” Danielle said. “If there’s one kid that the process is a little less scary for, it’s worth it.”
Along with the pain and procedures associated with Jacob’s condition, the steroids he took for a year caused Jacob to nearly double in size, which his mom said was very traumatizing for him.
Grueling treatments
Many of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan patients Dr. Baracco works with as a kidney doctor are being treated for things like chronic kidney disease, recurrent urinary tract infections or nephrotic syndrome, where the kidney leaks protein into the urine, causing swelling that is treated by very strong medications.
The hospital also sees a significant number of children with congenital abnormalities of the urinary tract.
Many of the children are experiencing regular IVs, biopsies, ultrasounds and imaging, blood draws and other medical procedures that can be scary for them, she said. And the impact of small gestures to help them cannot be understated.
“Our patients are so, so brave – it is amazing to see what they endure and how they power through things,” said Dr. Baracco.
“The team at Children’s Hospital of Michigan are always conscious of this, providing everything from hugs to toys to diversions to help them. We always strive to care for our patients both physically and emotionally.”
Thank you to Children’s Hospital of Michigan Communications Professional Tammy Battaglia for contributing this article to SocialHouseNews.com.
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