Vanderbilt Children's Cardiology Jackson

04/02/2026

When a child is in the hospital, a parent’s focus is on their recovery. Yet for many, a pressing need adds to the stress: access to nutritious food.

To meet the needs of families facing food insecurity, Champ’s Cupboard at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt launched over a year ago. The program has already made a meaningful impact:

• 235 families received frozen meals or nonperishable food boxes
• 98% of recipients found the resources helpful
• 87% of families reported the program increased their satisfaction with their hospital stay
• 50% of participants said they were introduced to a new, nutritious food through the program

The team is currently working to expand options for families with dietary restrictions and increasing the availability of culturally appropriate foods.

"It gave us food we didn’t have because we were struggling," one family said. Another family shared, "The meal got us through when we needed it."

Read more about Champ’s Cupboard in the story in our first comment.

03/31/2026

We rolled out the red carpet for stars of all kinds to celebrate 10 YEARS of Seacrest Studios at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. ✨🪩

Here’s to a decade of stories, songs and smiles, and many more to come! Learn more about Seacrest Studios and show your support by visiting https://give.vanderbilthealth.org/seacreststudios.

💙 Ryan Seacrest Foundation 💙

03/30/2026

Celebrate Doctors’ Day! ❤️ https://bit.ly/4130TwS

03/26/2026

As Children’s Miracle Network’s longest-standing corporate partner, Marriott International has been supporting children and their families since 1983. We are so grateful for their partnership! Through events like Cheers for Children, Tri My Best and the Play Yellow Golf Tournament, their support creates meaningful experiences for our community.

Join us on June 23 at the Play Yellow Golf Tournament as the impact continues, on the course and beyond.

Email CMNHospitals@vumc.org to learn more.

03/25/2026

Give some thought to what to pack in your hospital bag when your baby’s birth is approaching – especially if yours is a high-risk pregnancy and/or you’re expecting a longer-than-normal stay in the hospital. A neonatologist offers suggestions of what to bring with you.

And for families with babies who stay in our neonatal intensive care unit, here’s what you can expect from our Bridge to Home monitoring program if your baby qualifies. See the link in the comment for a lot of wisdom.

03/25/2026

Annalesa Sackey became the first pediatric burn advanced practice provider at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt less than two years ago. Since then, she has transformed how the hospital's youngest burn patients receive care, earning the trust of families and colleagues and managing up to 20 complex cases at a time.

She received a Credo Award at the Fall 2025 Vanderbilt Health Leadership Forum for exactly that kind of commitment.

“Vanderbilt taught me everything I know about burns. I don’t do this alone, and I continue to work with an amazing team that supports me in my personal and professional life.”

We are proud to have her on our team.

Learn more about joining us at the link in the comments below.

03/24/2026

03/23/2026

When Cheyenne watched Seacrest Studios being built on the second floor of Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, she had a feeling it would change things. She had no idea how much.

Seacrest Studios was built on the idea that kids facing serious illness deserve more than treatment. They deserve joy, connection, and a chance to feel like themselves again. For Cheyenne's son, Ivan, who is nonverbal and nonmobile, the studio became the place where he began using EyeGaze technology to ask questions, share his mood and create art. "When the studio was built, the magic happened," she said.

For 14-year-old Camdyn, the studio became a lifeline during her brother Grant's long wait for a heart transplant, a place she described as "a safe space for everybody" and the highlight of her day during an incredibly difficult time.

Read the full story at the link in the comments below.

03/19/2026

Lynnley's first memory of Seacrest Studios at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is also one of her best. She had just gotten a nasogastric tube, the kind that goes from your nose to your stomach, and she was angry and embarrassed and did not want anyone to see her. Her mom Deidre brought her down to the studio anyway.

There was a bingo game going on. Lynnley walked in, introduced herself, and looked around the room. Other kids were there with tubes. With equipment. With things that were, in her own words, “even worse than mine.”

She forgot about her own tube entirely. When she left, she genuinely could not remember when she had gotten it.

That was the beginning. Since then, Lynnley now knows the studio's schedule by heart. She schedules her clinic appointments around it. She has met Tim McGraw, she is the Nashville Soccer Club Junior Reporter and has been featured as a Nashville Predators Champ of the Game in Bridgestone Arena.

What happened between that first bingo game and today is no small thing.

"These people here got her out of bed," Deidre said. "These people here got her wanting to wake up tomorrow. These people here got her loving life again."

For Lynnley's upcoming birthday, she did not ask to go somewhere fun. She asked to go to the store, fill a bag with toys, and bring them to bingo so other kids could win prizes. She planned a surprise birthday party for the studio team because they feel like family, and in her world, that is exactly what they are.

If you ask Lynnley what she has learned about herself from coming to Seacrest Studios, she will tell you, without missing a beat: "That I am awesome and I am kind."

She is so right.

For ten years, that is what this place has done. It has taken kids at their hardest moments and reminded them of exactly who they are. Happy anniversary, Seacrest Studios. The last decade has been something so special.

Ryan Seacrest Foundation

03/19/2026

From the moment doctors got a look at Grant’s heart, they knew his journey would be anything but ordinary. By the time he was born, doctors discovered that he had hypoplastic right heart syndrome, a tracheal esophageal fistula, and a long road ahead of him at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

His family made Nashville home. They learned the floors, the faces, the everyday of hospital life. They would have up to 26 people through their door in a single day, and a pulse oximeter device beeping in the middle of the night. Evening walks to the koi pond because that was about as far as they could go.

And then, somewhere in the middle of all of it, Grant found Seacrest Studios.

He started with bingo from his room, FaceTiming in because he wasn't cleared to leave yet. His mom, Lea, walked down to collect his prize, a Sonic beanie, and showed it to him on the screen. He lit up. That was just the beginning.

By the time Grant was admitted as an inpatient, awaiting his transplant, the studio had become part of the daily routine. "What's going on down there today?" "What can we fill this day with?" His child life specialist, Morgan, helped him make flyers for his upcoming show, Grant's Nashville Hot Show, that he could hand out around the hospital. He taped them to walls. He told the people who brought his meals. He told everyone.

Grant's Nashville Hot Show was a spicy chip-eating contest. Grant and the Seacrest team sampled chip after chip, rated them on heat and taste, and somehow convinced his cardiologist to be part of it. The room was wall to wall. Cleaning staff. Floor nurses. Kids from other units. All there for Grant.

"If you could watch the tape, you can just see it in him," said his dad, Josh. "It brought him out. Brought him joy."

His sister, Camdyn, found her place there too. When Grant went back for his transplant late one evening and the family needed a safe place to land, the Seacrest team kept the lights on. They pulled out a table, set up chairs and handed Camdyn something for her hands to do. She made Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, and she still wears them today.

"It's a safe space," Camdyn said. "Just for everybody."

Seacrest Studios turns 10 this year. Ten years of kids who came in with long roads ahead of them, and found something along the way that made the road worth walking.

Ryan Seacrest Foundation

03/18/2026

Ivan was born with Dandy-Walker Syndrome and cerebral palsy. He had never communicated a single thought, need or feeling out loud. His mom Cheyenne had spent years doing her best to interpret what he needed through grunts and facial expressions alone, always convinced there was far more going on inside him than anyone could see.

Dr. Alice Lawrence, a developmental medicine physician at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, believed that too. In 2017 she introduced Ivan and Cheyenne to EyeGaze technology, an eye-driven communication device that let Ivan speak for the first time. He could tell his mom when he was hurting, when he needed to be moved, and say things he had never been able to say before, including "I love you."

Around that same time, Seacrest Studios at Monroe Carell gave Ivan's new voice somewhere to go. Singer Halsey was visiting the studio, and the team asked if Ivan wanted to ask her a question. They programmed a few options into his device, he made his choice, and Cheyenne watched her son light up in a way she had never witnessed before.

"I never would have seen that side of my son, that part of his personality, without the EyeGaze," Cheyenne said. "I would never have known before Seacrest Studios that he wanted to interview people. The way the hospital and Seacrest Studios make sure every patient in every room is included is just amazing."

Ivan is 20 now, and that one moment in the studio has grown into something nobody could have predicted. He has been to five comic cons with his media pass, interviewing Lou Ferrigno, Charlie Cox, Norman Reedus, Stephen Amell and more. He has hosted his own show inside Seacrest Studios. The team even threw him a high-school graduation celebration in the studio that has come to feel like a second home.

"So many times our voice, not the one you can hear but the one that is deep down inside, can get lost in our circumstances or diagnoses," said Mamie Shepherd, Seacrest Studios program manager. "When patients like Ivan come to Seacrest Studios, they find that voice again, or maybe for the first time. What a magical, powerful thing that is to witness."

Seacrest Studios at Monroe Carell turns 10 this year, and if you want to understand what that milestone really means, Ivan's story is a pretty good place to start.

Ryan Seacrest Foundation

03/18/2026

Ten years ago, Seacrest Studios opened its doors inside Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, and nothing has been quite the same since.

For the kids and families who've spent time here, the studio became something nobody could have predicted. A place where a child waiting on a new heart could forget, just for a moment, why they were there. Where parents who didn't know how they'd get through another day found their kids laughing again.

As one mom said: "These people here got her out of bed. These people here got her wanting to wake up tomorrow. These people here got her loving life again."

Thank you to our partners, special guests, and employees who have made the last decade possible. Ten years in, and we're just getting started.

Click the link in our comments to learn more about Seacrest Studios and its impact over 10 years.