Vikki Ortiz Healy – Page 19

Ava Martin, 1, who recently underwent a heart transplant, is secured to a chair as she waits to eat during a physical therapy session at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Willowbrook on Feb. 8, 2016.

Families connect after toddler’s tragic death gives hope to ailing girl

May 25, 2019 at 1:01 p.m.

After months of waiting, Amie and Brian Martin were grateful when their daughter Ava finally received a new heart. The 19-month-old girl with big, blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair...

Dr. Nadia Qureshi talks with a patient's mother during a routine examination at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Qureshi has worked hard to persuade parents to have their children get the HPV vaccine.

Pediatricians recommend newly improved HPV vaccine for 11-year-olds

May 23, 2019 at 5:36 a.m.

The country's leading doctors on Monday issued annual recommendations for childhood and adolescent immunizations, including that 11-year-olds get a newly improved HPV vaccine that has the ability to prevent more...

Fourth-graders work on their math at Carman-Buckner Elementary School in Waukegan on Jan. 22, 2016. Four years after the school tightened its policies to discourage long winter absences, the number of students there who took extended winter breaks has dropped from 10 to about two each year, a district official said.

Long winter absences no longer plague educators at largely Hispanic schools

June 9, 2018 at 2:49 a.m.

When Maria Cerpa was in high school in the 1990s, her parents pulled her out of classes for several weeks each winter for family trips to Mexico, where they visited...

Chicago attorney to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days

June 12, 2018 at 3:11 a.m.

A 47-year-old Chicago attorney is taking fitness in the new year to a new level by attempting to run seven marathons on seven continents — all within seven days. Sarah...

Kelli Thompson, founder of the Naperville Moms network, plays with her son Brady, 15 months, as she talks to network member Tania Licata at Centennial Park in Naperville, Ill.

Naperville moms project spotlights ‘real’ images of parenting

June 11, 2018 at 5:21 a.m.

Anyone with a kid knows there are two types of parenting moments. There are the picture perfect ones, captured at portrait studios or posted on Instagram: The baby with the...

December's higher-than-average temperatures are keeping reports of the flu down noticeably this season, health officials say.

Winter’s warm temperatures help limit flu outbreaks in Illinois

June 11, 2018 at 8:08 a.m.

Illinois residents can thank December's higher-than-average temperatures for helping keep flu season mostly in check this winter. Reports of the flu are down noticeably this season compared with recent years...

Sophia Trujillo, 6, who was awaiting a bone marrow transplant, watches blood drawn through a device on her chest at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge on Sept. 4, 2015. As the population diversifies, it's becoming more difficult to find bone marrow matches. On the national donor registry, 61 percent of donors are white and only 4 percent are mixed race.

Crystal Lake girl who needs bone marrow transplant accepted into clinical trial

June 11, 2018 at 7:50 a.m.

A 6-year-old Crystal Lake girl who spent months waiting for a life-saving bone marrow transplant from a donor of similar multiracial heritage has been accepted into a groundbreaking clinical trial...

Teyvon Bowen, from bottom left, and his cousins Elisha Jones, 7, Daniel Jones, 6, and Levell Jones, 9, top, at their grandparents' home in Robbins on Dec. 14, 2015.

Grandparents provide home for children whose parents died in crash

June 11, 2018 at 8:13 a.m.

Barbara and Robert Campbell have struggled with many things since their daughter and her husband were killed in a car accident in Robbins last summer, leaving the grandparents to take...

Meg Krull, 14, center and other classmates of Annie LeGere dance at a fundraiser called "Annie's Pink Christmas" at the Wilder Mansion in Elmhurst on Dec. 12, 2015.

Elmhurst mom pushes EpiPen availability after teen daughter’s allergy death

June 16, 2018 at 8:11 a.m.

On the day of her 13-year-old daughter's funeral, Shelly LeGere knew she couldn't spend the rest of her life going over the agonizing moments before her daughter died. The way...

Mom wonders when to cut off video monitor

May 23, 2019 at 3:58 a.m.

One of the most well-used gifts from my baby shower more than four years ago is the video monitor. The $100 device, which consists of a camera in the child's...

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