Journeys of Hope Podcast - Episode Twelve

In this episode of Journeys of Hope, host Rebecca Solomon sits down with Dr. Diana Haddad, Medical Director of Inpatient Units at Blythedale Children’s Hospital, to discuss her inspiring journey into medicine and her passion for caring for medically complex children. Drawing on years of experience in pediatric critical care, Dr. Haddad shares how her work in the PICU shaped her understanding of recovery, rehabilitation, and the importance of creating pathways back home for children and families after serious illness or injury. She reflects on the unique role Blythedale plays in bridging the gap between intensive care and home life, providing specialized medical care, rehabilitation, education, and emotional support in a child-centered environment. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Haddad emphasizes the power of teamwork, family support, resilience, and community, while offering a heartfelt perspective on hope as the faith that helps families navigate challenges and celebrate progress along the journey toward recovery.

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Key Takeaways:

1. Recovery extends far beyond the ICU
2. Blythedale bridges the gap between hospital and home
3. Family-centered care is essential
4. Every child's path to recovery is different 
5. Hope is a journey built on trust and perseverance

TRANSCRIPT

Rebecca Solomon (00:05)
Hello and welcome to Journeys of Hope, a podcast from Blythedale Children's Hospital inspired by the strength, resilience, and unshakable spirit of medically fragile children. My name is Rebecca Solomon Let's begin. On this episode, we're joined by Dr. Diana Haddad, our medical director of inpatient pediatrics, a board certified pediatrician and pediatric intensive care physician. With a background spanning top children's hospitals and years in the PICU,

She brings a powerful perspective on recovery, long-term care, and what hope looks like for families after critical illness. Dr. Haddad, thank you for being with us today.

Diana Haddad (00:44)
Thank you for having me.

Rebecca Solomon (00:46)
I'm looking forward to our conversation. You've really had such an interesting path from growing up in New York to studying Spanish literature at Dartmouth and even teaching skiing in Colorado. So what ultimately inspired you to pursue medicine and pediatrics?

Diana Haddad (01:03)
as far as inspiration, I think, you know, I remember being very curious and very fascinated by the human body and its functions from a really, from a very young age. And even though I was healthy and didn't really use doctors very frequently, I do remember enjoying going to my pediatrician, ⁓ which is funny because most kids hate going to the doctor, my own included. ⁓ I think she picked up on my

you know, my interest and played into it. And so I would say my own general pediatrician did inspire me to pursue a career in medicine.

I remember like going for strep tests and she'd let me look at the back of my throat, like holding a mirror while she was doing it. And I'm like, what's back there? Just sort of.

Rebecca Solomon (01:50)
⁓ my gosh. Unlike

any other child.

Diana Haddad (01:54)
No, I know. mean, it still didn't feel good, but I have these memories or planting a PPD under my skin and seeing the bubble go up and just looking at it like it was, you know, an egg waiting to hatch. I just she really piqued my interest in medicine and science. And so I would thank her for inspiring me. Unfortunately, inspiration really isn't enough

for medicine, medicine is such a marathon and ⁓ a huge sacrifice. So I knew obviously I wanted to do something with this early interest and anatomy and science, perhaps pursue a career in one of those things.

as far as the pursuit, I would say I have to really thank my parents for that, which is confusing because neither of them is a physician and not even in healthcare.

I not only thank them obviously for supporting me through this long, long journey, but also

my dad, who has an absolutely relentless work ethic, probably carries a gene for

being a very high functioning insomniac, obviously passed down to me. And then my mom, who enjoys sleep, but did a lot in her waking hours, including founding

nonprofit back in the late 70s called Scan New York, the Supportive Children's Advocacy Network. And

was ⁓ a nonprofit dedicated to social services, children of families of substance abusers in the Bronx. It's now expanded to include a variety of programs, social support programs for children and their families.

But because of that work, just grew up in seeing this fierce advocacy for children all the time. ⁓ so I would say, in summary, that was the mix of this early interest in medicine and science, a great mentor in my general pediatrician, and then not only the support by my mom and dad, but also their ⁓ own unique qualities.

And somehow that all came together to ⁓ help launch my career. And here I am.

Rebecca Solomon (04:11)
Wow,

talk about role models. You got them, right? And good genes, I guess, too. But ⁓ that's great. yeah, wow, shout out to your parents and your pediatrician. But really cool. Awesome. So now you have spent several years working in pediatric intensive care units. What drew you specifically to pediatric critical care?

Diana Haddad (04:15)
yeah.

Yeah.

Look, ⁓ critical care is fascinating, ⁓ but it's definitely not for everyone. We're managing, I'd say in the end of the day, critical care is about managing organ failure. Every organ, any organ that you have can also fail. And organ failure as an entity is hard to understand. It's a lot of medications, lot of ⁓ physiology, pathophysiology, equipment, technology, but

everybody can understand organ failure if you understand what organ success means. so ⁓ any organ, let's say the lungs, you when the lungs fail, if you can appreciate what's going on when you ask yourself, you know, well, what were the lungs intended to do? Bring oxygen in, bring carbon dioxide out. ⁓ So I think critical care really for me was a good fit because I just love the human body and I love.

anatomy and how the human body functions. So for me, it was a good fit, just intellectually. And then on top of what we manage, it's a lot of procedures in the ICU.

And that was good for me because this is a true story. I actually wanted to be a pediatric surgeon.

⁓ In medical school, it was my absolute favorite rotation surgery. I had did an extra week just on pediatric surgery and this was my third year of medical school. I actually remember very clearly it was like nearing end of my surgery rotation and ⁓ the chief of surgery brought me to the side and to talk to me. And ⁓ I'm thinking, my God, this is my moment. I'm gonna...

you know, I'm going to get a great report, I'm going to be a surgeon. ⁓ And she looked me straight in the eye and she was like, you know, it went great, and I know that you're interested, but she said, you really do not have the personality of a surgeon. It was a conversation that I took pause for a second, but I am so grateful to her because

Rebecca Solomon (06:35)
⁓ my gosh, what does that mean?

Diana Haddad (06:45)
I think while I love procedures and I love using my hands, the truth is surgery probably would not have been the right career for me. So critical care was a great mix of the medicine and sort of procedural ⁓ skills that I had learned and been really interested in, but without actually being ⁓ a surgeon who spends hours in the operating room with patients who are asleep.

Rebecca Solomon (07:10)
Yeah, with not being able to communicate and you're, we all, anyone who knows you, knows you have quite the personality and it is such a wonderful gift that you do have in addition to your skills, obviously, but that's important and kudos to another mentor in your life maybe who guided you in the right direction.

Diana Haddad (07:29)
Totally,

100%. Yes, I love talking.

Rebecca Solomon (07:34)
You do, and you've talked your way through some incredible institutions. So Mount Sinai, Cohen Children's Hospital, Maria Ferreri Children's Hospital. And because of your PICU background, you've cared for some of the sickish children. So how does your experience or that experience, I should say, how does that influence the way you think about recovery and long-term care for these medically complex kiddos?

Diana Haddad (07:58)
you know, there are far more children that are cared for in ICUs, PICUs or NICUs, than ever would need to come to a place like Blythedale. So if you think about it that way, actually the majority of children who are, you know, leaving the ICU are recovering at home. So, and the environment in the ICU is extremely abnormal for both for children and for

and for the

There's a lot of stillness, there's a lot of noise, alarming,

I'd say in terms of recovery of the cohort of children who leave an ICU and need to come to a place like Blythedale we take them out of that very abnormal environment and

continue their medical care, continue their rehab needs, make sure that all of that is met. But while doing it in an environment that emulates the home environment, it just, looks a lot more like home. is school, there is attention to, age and stage based entertainment that would be considered typical for a child.

the access to the outside, the interaction with other children,

at Blythedale has given an enormous amount of meaning to my career in the ICU, just because what we're seeing at Blythedale is the pendulum starting to swing in the other direction. So you go to the ICU with an acute illness or a critical injury, and then at some point you just sort of

pendulum has begun to swing in the other direction. You're in a recovery phase and if that recovery phase needs

continued medical care, continued rehab needs, social services that can't be met at home, then you come to Blythedale to ⁓ finish that out, to see that out.

Rebecca Solomon (09:50)
Yep, and while you're at Blythedale you'll get all of the above, right? Including play, which is a great form of therapy as well, so.

Diana Haddad (09:57)
Definitely, it's the most organic ⁓ childhood element is playing.

Rebecca Solomon (10:04)
Great. And you actually referred many of your own PICU patients to Blythedale Children's Hospital before you actually joined the team. What stood out to you about the care and outcomes you saw here, kind of piggybacking off of what we just talked about a little bit?

Diana Haddad (10:20)
like the ICU is amazing and we save lives and it's obviously such important work. ⁓ But that same scaffolding that supports such a fast paced, high acuity clinical environment is also a barrier to providing things that at some point are the most important for a child's meaningful recovery. So a great example of that is

pediatric stroke at some point, once they're stabilized, you know, it's no longer continuous infusions, continuous cardiopulmonary monitoring, neuro critical care monitoring. That's, that's relevant to them. It's more about pushing their limits in the rehab space while continuing their medical care. And that's just not something that can be accomplished in an ICU environment. So,

to Blythedale as a continuation of that while again, allowing children to push the limits in this rehab space. And the literature shows that if we can provide that, then the outcomes, you know, are, we're set up for successful outcomes.

Rebecca Solomon (11:30)
And for families or referring providers who may not be familiar with our hospital, Blythedale Children's Hospital, tell us a little bit about who is typically a good candidate to come here after an ICU stay.

Diana Haddad (11:44)
think colloquially people will, will ask, like, why do you need to go to Blythedale Like why, why come to Blythedale And, many might answer, well, you're coming to Blythedale for rehab. And I actually find that answer sort of unsatisfying. Cause I think that the real answer is you're coming to Blythedale because you can't go home. And now if you dig a little bit deeper and you say, okay, well, why, why can't you go home?

probably then those patients begin to fall into certain buckets. So you can't go home because you require a longer duration of medical care that doesn't necessarily need to be done in the ICU, but wouldn't be safe to be done at home either.

There is obviously the population who just would benefit from an intensive level of rehabilitation, comprehensive

there are children and families who need the support of the education team to learn how to administer their medications, how to use their new devices if they're technology dependent.

you came to Blythedale because you can't go home. And that's our priority to try to do whatever we can to get you there because it's where you belong. And Blythedale can be your house, but it can never be your home. So ⁓ if in that sort of the framework that I take when we are ⁓ looking at patients who are good candidates.

Rebecca Solomon (13:14)
And there truly is nothing more magical than a child who's coming to Blythedale unable to talk or walk or eat, and then they leave the hospital to head home, able to do all of the above. It's pretty special what you and your team do, really is.

What types of conditions or medical needs do you commonly see in children who transition from the PICU to our hospital for continued care?

Diana Haddad (13:41)
similar to the ICU, it's a, it's a mix of conditions. are children who have,

chronic illness that have an exacerbation of their underlying chronic illness that,

yeah, I think it's one of the broad categories.

we have obviously babies in the NICU who are born into their illnesses and they just need

the practice, living a life outside of the ICU. And then there are children who were previously healthy who unfortunately have a devastating illness or injury that lands them in the ICU, even though they had a life free from chronic disease prior to that. I'd say the conditions are varied. It's a mix in those general categories.

And then their medical needs are those things that brought them there in the first place. So maybe ⁓ it's a conglomeration of the consequence of their chronic illnesses or their new injuries, new technology

In terms of medical needs, sometimes we are actually at Blythedale treating the consequence of their ICU stay and not the injury or illness itself. So an example of that are critical illness, myopathy, where children become weak just from a prolonged hospitalization, right? The immobility and stillness is just not at all what most children are doing prior to becoming sick. ⁓ Oftentimes you have

a new technology dependence and issues related to that, whether it's just physical or ⁓ medical or educational. So a variety of conditions, a variety of medical needs, and we strive to treat them all.

Rebecca Solomon (15:24)
So now that you're the medical director of inpatient pediatrics, take us to work with you. What does your role look like day to day?

Diana Haddad (15:31)
my days are packed and I love it. And you can take the girl out of the PICU, but you can't take the PICU out of the girl, right? ⁓ My heart is in medicine, clinical medicine. So what's cool about my job now is that I still get to be a doctor and I cover service, I cover calls, and I still get to practice as a clinician.

which is the best I wouldn't do this without that opportunity. but, and another great thing about that is that I can, when I'm working and I'm patient facing and I'm in the units, I get to gather all this real time data to work with because in my administrative role, I'm helping to operationalize systems all for the sake of patient safety, for our stride for clinical excellence.

And the work's never gonna be done there because we're always gonna wanna be improving the way we work. And the milieu of children with medical complexity is constantly evolving. And it's getting harder for all the right reasons, right? Children are survivors of profound prematurity in a way that they weren't. They're survivors of critical illness, life-threatening injuries, and so many thanks to advances in technology and science.

So it just forces us to keep scrutinizing our practice, keep evolving. ⁓ And it's busy, but it's really great work.

Rebecca Solomon (16:57)
Great, and you get to work with all of our amazing team members and staff and we see you up and down the units and it's really,

perfect fit,

again, we are so lucky to have

Diana Haddad (17:09)
is a team effort, right? This is not singles tennis. ⁓ And as far as my role as the medical director, I sort of think of it as a mix of sales and compliance. When I'm facing my team, I want to be a good leader. I want to be a good mentor. I want to be a good partner to them. I want to team up with them. And that's doctors, nurses, therapists.

pharmacy, social work, child life therapy. It's a huge team. But from an administrative standpoint, at the same time, I turn my back and I'm forced to be compliant to an organization. How can I make decisions that are in the best interest for the hospital? So

sort of a mix of those both.

Rebecca Solomon (17:49)
It's a mix. That's

great. Awesome. How do you help ensure that medically complex children receive both high quality medical care and a supportive environment for recovery?

Diana Haddad (18:01)
I mean, you look around and you can see like what an extraordinary, multidisciplinary effort that takes.

say the number one thing I can probably do at any moment is just encourage myself and encourage everyone around me to just stay humble. know, none of us can act alone. None of us can be successful without the other team members.

kind of what I'm encouraging myself and my team to do at any given time.

Rebecca Solomon (18:33)
and we know you're day in and day out working with those patients, but let's take a minute to talk about the families. ⁓ Family is such a big part of Blythedale and we know these families often come to us after very stressful ICU journeys. How do you and your team support both the medical and emotional needs of these families?

Diana Haddad (18:52)
stressful is

way to describe it. Probably an understatement. It's sort of hard to really understand the level of stress that a family might have gone through while in the ICU.

you think about it that way, I think that the number one thing that we can do to support the emotional needs of families is just by validation. You know, not saying that we understand how you feel. We probably don't really, unless we've been through the same thing ourselves personally, but ⁓

despite people's very good intentions, what it really is is validating that it's so totally reasonable to feel the way that they feel in this part of it. And it can be a mix. It can be ongoing stress and emotions related to stress, sometimes grief, while also experiencing the joy of seeing little glimmers of hope.

and progress ⁓ over time. So I think just validation is one way to support. And then also building community. There's a huge effort, I'd say, on behalf of not just the medical team, more so that all the psychosocial support teams. So you have social work, child life, spiritual care.

building a community for these families that they may not have been a part of prior to their illness or prior to their injury. ⁓ And through this community building, we can support their emotional needs distinct from or in addition to how we support them medically.

Rebecca Solomon (20:31)
Yeah.

It's so fascinating how Blythedale is able to give these families ⁓ almost everything they could possibly need in that ⁓ environment. And not only for their children who, from the moment they're at Blythedale, know, therapists find ways to get them up and moving in what's appropriate for them, but in that support group as well for the families. And sometimes that's everything for a mom or a caregiver or a dad. You know, that's just sometimes

all it takes. Yeah. From your perspective, what is the most rewarding part of caring for medically complex children during the recovery phase? There might have a few responses there, but I'm sure there's a lot of rewarding parts of ⁓ your role. yeah, tell us a little bit about that.

Diana Haddad (21:03)
Mm-hmm.

Thank

Yeah, I know it's hard work, but it's very rewarding. ⁓ If I had to pick one thing, I mean, I would just say that the thought of returning to the community that is really starting to accommodate and embrace them. I'd say that's the most exciting, rewarding part for

it makes me think of this story. A couple of years ago, I went to...

Disneyland with my family. My children were young at the time. Let's see, they were two, two, four and six. And I remember we were riding the monorail to go to the theme park from our hotel. And if you've been there, it's like, you know, this sort of tiny little space. And my, my memory is that we were on the monorail going to park one morning and we're sitting there on the bench and we

stop at the next hotel to pick up more passengers and a little girl comes in in a wheelchair and she was a above knee amputee and in her wheelchair and just dressed in all the Disney paraphernalia that any child would be and she was probably about seven or eight years old and my four year old daughter, ⁓ four is an age where there's often time

No filter. So my four-year-old daughter is right next to her and she looks at this little girl and she goes, where's your leg? And I'm thinking, my God, I'm so embarrassed. I'm gonna apologize to the mother. And this little girl just looks, she stares right back at her and she goes, it's over here. And then looks at my daughter and she goes, where's your chair? And you know.

and it just immediately normalized. One person has a wheelchair and one doesn't. You know, one person has two legs and one doesn't. And was a conversation about where are you going? Or, you know, what rides are you going to go to? Who are you going to see? What are you excited for? And now it's just this conversation between two little girls on a monorail going to Disney. And I just, think about that when we're, when we're ⁓

Rebecca Solomon (23:14)
my gosh, I'm getting emotional. That's so beautiful.

⁓ I love that.

I love that.

Diana Haddad (23:41)
you know, with our patients trying to get them back into the community, whether they are technology dependent, ⁓ equipment dependent, varying degrees of, ⁓ you know, of experiences prior to their stay at Blythedale, it ultimately in the end, it shouldn't matter. So the heart of this is just children who might want to go to Disneyland and ⁓

Rebecca Solomon (24:04)
Yeah.

Diana Haddad (24:10)
and they see eye eye on certain things, whether they are chronically, medically sick or not.

Rebecca Solomon (24:19)
Yeah, and that's one of the beautiful things even at Blythedale in our school that we have on campus is every child there, the reason why they're there looks a little different, but ⁓ together when they're in one room, they're all the same, you know, and it's just such a beautiful thing. It's great. Thanks for sharing that story.

Brought tears to my eyes. All right, so looking ahead, what excites you the most about the future of care for these patients at our hospital?

Diana Haddad (24:44)
Hi.

the future of care of children with medical complexity will undoubtedly rely on advances in technology, continued advances in technology, ⁓ know, medicine and science. And I'd say that, you know, intellectually, that's really what's the most exciting is that we there's a long

there's a long list of things that can still be accomplished to meet their needs and to meet their needs, particularly as members of our community. So I think that that's pretty exciting to me. And then I'd say as far as my role within the hospital, there's a really, really energized leadership. I work most closely with Dr. Leinenweber, who is, you

Rebecca Solomon (25:31)
Absolutely.

Diana Haddad (25:47)
He's my boss and he is a colleague from Critical Care and has taken me under his wing and is mentoring me. And so I get to work with him really closely and he's my idol. I get to see the executive application of critical care medicine and leadership day in and day out. so that for me personally is very exciting.

You have very renewed energy sort of all over just with the vision of our new leader, Dr. Beers, and all the people sort of trying to execute on his energy and his vision. And that part of it's so exciting. And there's a lot of challenges, right? We hardly have the wind beneath our sails.

facing an absolutely incomprehensible political environment. ⁓ It's going to be a lot of fighting and a lot of advocacy, but ⁓ all for the right reasons. And it's an exciting time to be fighting for good outcomes, excellence, good care, and continued relationships with ⁓ our patients, with our families. ⁓

The future holds a lot of things.

Rebecca Solomon (27:12)
Well, Blythedale is certainly worth fighting for, that's the truth. Alright, Dr. Haddad, I have one more question I would like to ask you. How would you describe the meaning of hope?

Diana Haddad (27:26)
What is hope? Hope Hope is faith, right? Hope is taking ⁓ the things you know, the people you trust, and mixing them together to ⁓ anticipate that things might, in fact, work out well, while also ⁓ the reality that they may not, or that there may be obstacles.

⁓ but you have all the right reasons to try to find a workaround. so this podcast is aptly named. It's a journey. It's a journey of hope. That's the only way we're going to make it.

Rebecca Solomon (28:12)
Absolutely. And wow, I mean, just listening to you on this episode has been so inspiring. And I think back to your earlier career or when you were a kid and you talked about your pediatrician and your inspiration also with your parents. And just think of all of the people who are either listening to this podcast or are team members at Blythedale who look up to you as their inspiration. I think you

are part of the reason why there is also hope for ⁓ in the future of healthcare. So thank you again.

Diana Haddad (28:50)
Thank you, was one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me.

Rebecca Solomon (28:53)
Well,

you know, ⁓ it all speaks for itself. So thank you and thank you for taking time to sit down and tell us a little bit more about your role here on Journeys of Hope.

course, if you have any ideas for future topics, we'd love to hear from you. Podcast at blythedale.org. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like and follow us on social media. Thanks so much and we will see you next time.