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Lehi hospital expanding youth cancer center

By Jamie Lampros - Special to the Daily Herald | Sep 7, 2021
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Primary Children's Hospital Miller Family Campus is being built in Lehi.
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Plans for the Primary Children's Hospital Miller Family Campus being built in Lehi.
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In this November 2020 photo, children shovel dirt during a groundbreaking for the Primary Children's Hospital Miller Family Campus being built in Lehi.

Young cancer patients in Utah County will soon benefit from a newly announced expansion at the children’s hospital under construction in Lehi.

The cancer and infusion center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital on the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family campus will save countless hours of driving time for residents like Lehi resident Cora Morgan, who spent several days a week on the road to Salt Lake City’s main hospital taking her daughter, Harper, to appointments for cancer treatments.

Harper, now nine years old, was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of four. At the time, she had no symptoms, but several family members commented that she looked pale.

“We were at a Thanksgiving family party and my mom said Harper looked pale. Then my sister said she looked pale and then my sister in-law said she looked pale. She had been fighting a strep infection, but I had this momma gut feeling something was wrong, so I called the pediatrician from the party,” Morgan said. “We took her in the next day. She seemed just fine physically but I still had a bad feeling, so the doctor drew some blood.”

Two hours later, the phone rang. The doctor told Morgan to get her daughter to Primary Children’s Hospital immediately.

“It was about a 45 minute drive. The doctor told me she had almost no red blood cells and she needed a transfusion. When we got to the hospital, she was transfused with blood within 30 minutes and within 24 to 48 hours we had a plan in place on how to treat her.”

Harper began chemotherapy treatment right away and spent a week in the hospital but she had to return and stay another week because of an infection.

“It took about a month to get her remotely stable,” Morgan said. “From that time, we went to Primary Children’s every week and sometimes multiple times a week and that was hard, especially driving during those long winter nights.”

Harper is now in remission, but she still has to have regular check-ups at the hospital and will continue to do so until she is 18. Her mother said having a campus closer to home will be a huge help, not only for her family but for the entire county.

“Minutes matter and it really matters with your child,” she said. “This will be such a valuable resource in our community. When it’s finished, the ride to the hospital will be 10 minutes.”

The hospital is expected to open in early 2024. The cancer and infusion center will treat cancer patients, but will also be able to serve other chronically ill patients according to Lisa Paletta, hospital administrator for the Miller campus facility.

“On average, we have about 35 inpatient children on the cancer unit each day and about 60 kids are there for cancer related outpatient visits,” she said. “About 35% of those kids receiving infusion therapy actually live outside of Salt Lake. When we did an assessment study we found that 1/3 of our patients come from Utah County and many of them have to drive an hour to be seen.”

The cancer and infusion center was made possible through a $5 million gift from the Kahlert Foundation, Paletta said. The center will include nine spacious, child-friendly rooms for chemotherapy and other infusions, a waiting area, large playroom and an outdoor terrace for families to enjoy some fresh air during therapy appointments.

“Having to go through chemotherapy or other infusion treatments can be hard on a child and their whole family,” said Katy Welkie, chief executive officer of Primary Children’s Hospital and vice president of Intermountain Children’s Health. “New, child-centered healing spaces will reduce some of the fear children experience with cancer and other chronic illness and help them heal and recover.”

The new $335 million campus will be a full-service hospital that will include a trauma II emergency department, newborn and pediatric intensive care units, operating rooms and behavioral health services.

“This is really part of the IHC promise to build a model healthcare system right here in Utah,” Paletta said. “We are grateful to the Kahlert Foundation and other donors that are helping this all come to fruition.”

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