The post Fashion Show Gala appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

Featuring

• Casino Game Tables (Blackjack, Roulette, and Poker)
• Local Cuisine & Spirits
• Live & Silent Auction
• Music & Entertainment

Tickets
General Admission: $175 per person
VIP: $350 per person

Purchase Tickets

The post Casino Royale appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

Dr. Sean Daneshmand is as close as a person can get to being Superman.

Not only does he deliver babies — many of them in high-risk situations — Daneshmand is also the founder of a nonprofit that helps families with newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Miracle Babies provides everything from counseling to gas vouchers for families going through emotional and financial hardships due to having a sick or premature newborn.

Daneshmand knows firsthand what that’s like because in 2002, his wife had pregnancy complications and his daughter was born at 34 weeks.

A decade later, Daneshmand’s efforts have earned him national attention, including as a CNN “Hero of the Week.”

The Carmel Valley doctor, who moved to San Diego in 1999, took some time to discuss his cause and whether obstetricians are allowed to speed on the freeway.

Q: Why do you specialize in high-risk pregnancies?

A: During my residency at UCLA, I was always drawn more to surgery. I realized, however, that I liked ultrasound and was more drawn to teaching obstetrics. I was, and still am, amazed at seeing loving families going through their pregnancies and having us, the obstetricians, be a part of the miraculous process.

Q: What’s the longest stretch of time you’ve been awake?

A: 48 hours. But now with my wonderful partners, that does not happen any longer.

Q: What is Miracle Babies, and why did you form it?

A: Miracle Babies is a nonprofit organization with the mission to provide support and financial assistance to families with critically ill newborns in the NICU. I, along with many other volunteers, started Miracle Babies so that parents with sick newborns in financial hardship could still afford the daily commitments of life (mortgage, rent, gas, etc.) and be with their sick newborn. The emotional stress of having a sick baby is indescribable, and to top it off, with a bad economy and financial difficulties that many people are facing, it makes it hard to focus on what is really important — spending time with their angels both mentally and physically.

Q: Besides your own, what’s your most memorable delivery?

A: The memories of why Miracle Babies was born are numerous. Many times I would ask patients how often they are seeing their baby and the answer would be, “Doctor, we only have one car and can’t get to the NICU every day,” or “Doctor, we have 13 cents to our name and can’t afford to come every day” or “Doctor, we just sold our car so that we can afford rent and be able to visit our baby” and the list goes on. The memories are no longer a difficult delivery or how many deliveries I have done but seeing the smile on people’s faces when they see their newborn. Seeing wonderful, caring parents starting a family and caring for those children so they can be independent thinkers when they grow up.

Q: Are obstetricians allowed to speed on the freeway?

A: No.

Q: What is something people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: I believe that every child needs to learn more about the brain anatomy and physiology as a mandatory class in elementary and high school. I do believe that if every one knew and understood the most important organ in the body (the human brain), people would be much better and civilized toward one another.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not working?

A: Spend time with my family, my No. 1 priority in life.

Q: Where is the best cup of coffee in San Diego?

A: My house — I make the best coffee!

Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

A: Going for a hike, then off to breakfast with my wife and daughter (and poodle). Playing tennis and then hanging out at the house with an early dinner and movies.

Source: U-T San Diego, By Story by Nina Garin, photo by Nelvin c. cepeda

The post Delivering Family Support appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

Some how I managed to hold on to Ava until the golden marker we were do desperately wanting to reach, week 24 where Ava was now considered viable. I was put into the hospital and was there for the next 2 weeks, when I started hemorrhaging severely. Our family had gotten quite close to Sean, as we now called him, during those 2+ weeks, and after the STAT called him to my room, he arrived breathless, and the worry written all over his face. I was moved to L&D where Sean spent the rest of the day with us watching everything that happened, wondering if time was running out for Ava due to the blood loss.

We all sat around talking and at times laughing as my family does under pressure, Sean included. Then Dr. Daneshmand turned to check the computer for my lab results and spun around on his little stool and said “It’s time, we have to go right now”. There was no more time for Ava or for me, she had to come out now if either of us would survive. I was in the OR for about 15 minutes, and another 10 minutes or so, our little Ava arrived at 26.5 weeks weighing 1lb 15 oz.

It was there that our journey through the NICU doors began. Ava spent nearly 3 months in the NICU, she lost nearly half of her blood volume during delivery when the placenta finally let go before they could get her our. Even so, with the careful eye of her primary NICU doctor, controlling all blood draws, Ava made it through the ordeal with not even 1 blood transfusion, which we were very thankful for since we are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Ava had nearly 0 residual effects following her ordeal. In fact she did so amazing well that even though we moved out of the state, Mary Birch wanted to come and see Ava in her new home in New Mexico. Ava just turned 8, and is my little hippie child. She goes through life as a free and easy spirit, and is if she really understands just how specials her life is, and that there are much worse things in life then worrying about what may be happening today.

- Ashley “Mom”

The post Miracle Baby: Ava appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

RUNNERS RESULTS : CLICK HERE 

We will post pictures soon.

THINGS HAPPEN: In the event of rain or any other wrench that gets thrown into our plan there will be a re-schedule date set and we are sorry but NO REFUNDS will be given. All event aspects are subject to change without notification.  If you for some reason you cannot attend the race you have 2 options transfer your entry to a friend or lose your entry fee, again, sorry no refunds on any portion of entry fees.

The post Miracle Babies 5k for Healthy Babies appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

Fortunately, Smith’s volunteer work on behalf of a multitude of San Diego organizations speaks for itself. Which is exactly the way she wants it.

“I always believe that with a little effort, anyone can make a change in the world,” Smith said after some coaxing last week. “I look at myself and think, ‘How many more years do I have left to do this kind of work, and how can I put those years to good use?’ ”

From the Girl Scouts and the YMCA to Sharp Memorial Hospital and the Institute for Peace and Justice, Smith has made herself useful to some of San Diego’s biggest, most influential institutions. She sits on boards and presidential committees. She advises politicians and Francis Parker School students. As a founding member of the Charter 100 club, she mentors young women who have aged out of the foster system.

Are you surprised that November 28 is now officially known as “Reggie Smith Day” in the City of San Diego? She was, but you shouldn’t be.

“We’ll be at Sharp Hospital, and everyone from the person taking tickets at the parking structure to the CEO knows her. It’s like being in the hospital with a star,” said Kevin Robertson, executive director of Miracle Babies, a local nonprofit for families of at-risk infants. “As soon as she came on board, she took us to the next level.”

Born and raised in Ashland, Ky., Smith was the second-oldest of eight children, which explains her gift for mentoring. She got an early dose of consciousness-raising watching family friends and schoolmates struggle with the injustices of segregation. “Don’t judge a person by the color of their skin,” her father told her. “Judge them by the quality of their lives.” The lesson stuck.

She moved to San Diego in 1960 against the wishes of her mother, who had been told California was still home to “wild Indians.” Smith came anyway.

“California was like another part of the world,” Smith remembers. “But I was adventurous.”

One year later, she married fellow University of Toledo student James Smith, and they bought a two-bedroom house in Linda Vista. James taught math at Horace Mann Middle School in City Heights and Reggie was a stay-at-home mom for daughter Rebecca (now a San Diego attorney) and son Joel, who grew up to be a local orthopedic trauma surgeon.

Her volunteering career started in the mid-60s, when she founded the Mark Twain Elementary School PTA. A few decades and many nonprofits later, she is still advocating on behalf of children and families still doing it for free.

Her latest cause is Miracle Babies. Founded in 2009 by obstetrician Sean Daneshmand, Miracle Babies gives families the emotional and financial support they need to deal with the demands of having a child in the neonatal intensive care unit. The organization will pay for baby supplies, groceries, cribs, utilities and child care so parents can concentrate on the health and welfare of their fragile new arrivals.

“They helped us pay for our mortgage, gas and food for a few months so we could get back on our feet,” said Mike Pacheco, whose son, Noah, spent three months in the Sharp Mary Birch Hospital neonatal intensive care unit. “That really helped relieved a lot of stress. Bills were the last thing we wanted to worry about. The focus at that time was Noah, and it still is. Miracle Babies was really a blessing.”

Noah is 3 years old now and thriving. Smith — who became even more dedicated to volunteer work after her husband passed away six years ago — is busy making sure Miracle Babies follows suit.

She brokered a partnership between Daneshmand’s organization and the YMCA, which resulted in “Healthy Women, Healthy Babies,” a health and nutrition program for women who are likely to have at-risk pregnancies. Smith also helped Miracle Babies move into spanking new offices on Aero Drive, which are filled with furniture she managed to get for free.

All in all, it’s a good start to yet another chapter in Reggie Smith’s storied volunteer life. There is a lot more where that came from.

“I truly want to think that at the close of every day, I have done something to make the world a little bit better,” Smith says. “I always want to do something that is valuable.”

Source U-T San Diego, By Karla Peterson Jan. 14, 2013

The post Star volunteer puts San Diego first appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.

McDermott debuted in his first competition Sunday en route to the Cook-Off championship which would award a $50,000 donation to the charity of his choice. He has selected a San Diego nonprofit, Miracle Babies, which aids needy families with newborns in intensive care.  For show details visit Rachel Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off on the Food Network.

Source: U-T San Diego, By Diane Bell 

The post Taste test: Actor Dean McDermott picks Miracle Babies appeared first on Miracle Babies : Non Profit.