Celebrating Healthcare Heroes Parker and Dr. Katherine Thomas at Stars and Strides Event
Valley Health Foundation (VHF) actively supports the patients, families, and dedicated health professionals of Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. We love to recognize and celebrate amazing patient success stories and their outstanding clinicians.
Valley Health Foundation was delighted to honor past-patient 6-year-old Parker and one of her exceptional physicians, Dr. Katherine Thomas, at our 2024 Bloom Energy Tarana Wireless 5K/10K Run on June 29, 2024. As our special guests, they officiated the start of the 5K/10K Run, flew in a County of Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department helicopter and landed at the event site where they were greeted by a swarm of superheroes, lead warmups for a large group of children, and officiated the start of the Kid’s Fun Run! According to Parker’s parents, “This was the commencement-like ceremony that our family needed for our healing and to celebrate and uplift Parker’s recovery journey. Humbly, thank you.”
Now let’s turn back the clock… In January 2024, Parker, started developing flu like symptoms. Within two days her condition deteriorated requiring emergency admission to a Pediatric ICU. The flu virus had spread to her brain where it was causing her to have seizures, experience great difficulty breathing on her own, inability to speak or swallow and several other neurologic symptoms. Her doctors told her parents that she was diagnosed with a rare acquired brain injury called, “acute necrotizing encephalopathy” and that they would do everything possible to save her. After four debilitating weeks in the hospital, Parker’s symptoms had largely subsided, but she was still unable to walk, eat and speak. After considering several options for Acute Pediatric Rehabilitation, her parents decided to have their young daughter transferred to the award-winning Rehabilitation Center at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) in San Jose, CA. There they met Dr. Katherine Thomas, Medical Director of the Pediatric Rehabilitation Unit.
Dr. Thomas is a Pediatric Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist at the Rehabilitation Center at SCVMC. She led Parker’s multidisciplinary care team who worked tirelessly with Parker and her family through her recovery at the hospital. Dr. Thomas represented the many doctors, nurses, dietitians, physical, occupational and speech therapists, social workers (and so many more) who supported Parker’s recovery and dedicate their lives to providing compassionate care for patients and families at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and the larger Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system.
For the next month, Parker worked very hard with her entire team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, language speech pathology therapists, recreation therapists and family to regain her abilities to walk, eat, speak, and write. Her care team was very impressed by Parker’s “heroic” determination to recover and return home. She did everything they asked her to do during her three hours of therapy every single day. She credits her care team with their heroic efforts to support her throughout her difficult journey to recover. On March 13th, she was seen literally skipping out of the hospital. It was a sight to behold by all who cared for her. Amazing things happen when you combine a determined patient with a state-of-the-art rehabilitation program, and a coordinated and compassionate care team. Which is why we are recognizing the successes of Parker and Dr. Katherine Thomas.
