When Vitória Gabrielly Schmidt de França da Silva was two years old, her teacher noticed she had difficulties to listen. The family decided to look for medical assistance and discovered she had severe deaf. It then started a long battle for a successful treatment. Referenced to Pequeno Príncipe Hospital, Vitória underwent a cochlear implant when she was three years old, the first one accomplished at the institution through the Public Health System (SUS).

Today, Vitória is 13 years old and lives an absolutely normal life. Besides the surgery, there were long years of speech therapy, which guaranteed a healthy development of the girl, who now speaks and listens perfectly. “We had the privilege of being the first kid implanted at Pequeno Príncipe. We all went through a psychological preparation, and it was a time of learning. The team of professionals who took care of her are real angels and provided us all the support needed,” says Nelcimara Schmidt Maia da Silva, the girl’s mother.

At Pequeno Príncipe we accomplish, approximately, 18 implants like the Vitória’s one every year via Public Health System. And this is one of the subjects of the second edition of the Pequeno Príncipe News in 2021, that also presents an article about a research project related to leukemia that is being developed by scientists of Pelé Pequeno Príncipe Research Institute.

“Each patient responds to treatment in a different way. We will collect data on what happens in the cells and intestines of these children and then cross-reference this data to try to identify early markers that indicate whether the child will respond well to therapy,” explain research coordinator Roberto Rosati and co-coordinator Líbera Maria Dalla Costa. With this they intend to contribute to the treatments being even more assertive, increasing the chances of cure for patients with this type of leukemia.

The third article of Pequeno Príncipe is about an outpatient clinic for the post-COVID-19 cardiologic follow-up of patients. The article also says that the Pequeno Príncipe Hospital plans to create a multidisciplinary follow-up outpatient clinic for these children and adolescents. The service will be based on a successful experience that has been in operation since August 2020: the cardiology follow-up clinic.

Click here and read the full-length articles in the second edition of the Pequeno Príncipe News in 2021.