Kids with arthritis find help in Pittsburgh
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Living close to Pittsburgh made prompt diagnosis and early treatment possible for Ashlyn Connolly, 4, here with her parents, Julie and Colin, and her little sister, Claire, 2.
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It took four visits to three different doctors and more than a year's time before Samara Pollak, then 8 and a resident of Albany, N.Y., was diagnosed with polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. To get her regular care by a pediatric rheumatologist, her parents had a choice of traveling to either Boston or New York City, both three hours away.
Her story demonstrates how hard it can be to find doctors who understand the chronic pediatric disease and can provide the best treatment.
"I ended up in Boston," said Ms. Pollak, now 18. "My sister was going to college there, so we decided to go where we could see my sister."
Life got easier when the family moved here during Ms. Pollak's junior year in high school. Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has a large and highly regarded rheumatology program. It treats hundreds of young patients from as far away as Altoona, western New York, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. Ms. Pollak became the patient of Raphael Hirsch, chief of the rheumatology division.
Ashlyn Connolly, now 4, had just turned 3 when she also was diagnosed with polyarticular juvenile arthritis. But she is lucky in one way: Her family lives in Mt. Lebanon, so it was only a couple months after she first showed symptoms that she was diagnosed by Paul Rosen, clinical director of rheumatology at Children's. He came to the hospital in 2003.
"It's fortunate we have someone to go to for help," said her father, Colin Connolly.
"There are fewer than 250 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the country," said Dr. Hirsch.
That's nowhere near enough.
The Arthritis Foundation estimates there are nearly 300,000 children who have some form of the chronic disease most people wrongly think of as the sole purview of old folks. Training in juvenile arthritis equips a doctor to reduce symptoms that can cause damage in a growing child.
First Published May 19, 2010 12:00 am
