Oak Ridge Today

Family, friends remember Brayden Pearson, seek to honor his ‘zest for life’

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Bubbles for Brayden Pearson

Family and friends blow bubbles for Brayden Pearson during a Friday night vigil at the Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge.

 

He wore No. 14 when he played baseball and basketball for the Boys and Girls Club. Only eight years old and going into fourth grade, he hadn’t really decided on a profession yet, but he thought playing major league baseball “would be awesome,” a family friend said.

So it was fitting that family and friends gathered in the outfield of a baseball field at the Boys and Girls Club of Oak Ridge to remember Brayden Pearson on Friday. They described Brayden as a lively boy with thick, curly hair, and a contagious laugh—”the best laugh ever,” said Tracy Stewart, a member of the close-knit sports family at the club. Brayden loved school, family friend Sara VanLandingham said.

Brayden died Monday, two days after he had trouble while snorkeling near a swimming area at Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge. He had to be pulled from the lake that Saturday afternoon. Family and friends performed CPR, and 911 was called. The Oak Ridge police and fire departments responded and continued CPR, and Brayden was flown by a Lifestar medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville.

The family said they wanted to continue Brayden’s zest for life by donating his organs to other children who need them. On Friday, VanLandingham, who has been speaking on behalf of the family, said four organs had been successfully removed for donation. [Read more…]

Woodland student pulled from water Saturday dies Monday, school official says

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The fourth-grade student pulled from the water at Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon died on Monday, a school official said.

Brayden Pearson was a student at Woodland Elementary School, said Keys Fillauer, Oak Ridge Board of Education chair. The school board observed a moment of silence for Pearson during a Monday evening meeting.

Pearson was found underwater while swimming with his family at a picnic area at the park around 4 p.m. Saturday, Oak Ridge Fire Department Chief Darryl Kerley said. He was not conscious, Kerley said.

CPR was started, and Pearson was flown by a Lifestar medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, where he had a pulse on Saturday afternoon and was moved into Intensive Care, Kerley said.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Boy flown to Children’s Hospital after near-drowning at Clark Center Park

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After family members and emergency responders started CPR, a boy who had gone missing while swimming at Clark Center Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday afternoon was flown by medical helicopter to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville, authorities said.

On Sunday afternoon, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said he didn’t know the current condition of the boy, who might be about eight years old.

The boy had been moved to Intensive Care at Children’s Hospital, Kerley said.

“That’s all we know at the moment,” he said.

The chief said the family had been swimming about 150 feet away from the beach at a picnic area at Clark Center Park when relatives noticed the boy was gone. They started CPR when they found him and called 911. The Oak Ridge police and fire departments responded and continued CPR. Anderson County Emergency Medical Services transported the boy to the Lifestar medical helicopter, which picked up the child at a softball field at the park. [Read more…]

Honors: Girl Scouts awarded grants

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Joyce Maienschein and Miriam Ryburne

Ambassador Girl Scout Miriam Ryburne, pictured with Joyce Maienschein, has been awarded a Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant of financial support for the service project she created to help needy children in the USA and in Indonesia. (Submitted photo)

 

The Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians has announced recent recipients of Leadership Grants to provide financial support for community service projects. The grant winners, middle- and high-school-age Girl Scouts, have each created and are leading a different community project.

Miriam Ryburne, daughter of Oak Ridgers Nan Shugart and Mark Cantley, organized and taught a team of people to make hand-knitted items for an all-girls orphanage in Indonesia, as well as for six other organizations, including the Florence Crittenden Agency and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

Allison Campbell, of Knoxville, is upgrading the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital doctors’ waiting room, designing and printing activity books for the children, and gathering immediate needs for patients.

Sierra Turner of Chattanooga is collecting CD players and CDs for cancer patients at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. [Read more…]

ORNL’s Payne to serve as AC chair for Children’s Hospital campaign

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Terry Payne

Terry L. Payne

Each year, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital gets more than 148,000 visits from tens of thousands of children across 16 counties in Tennessee. In 2013, more than 7,300 children from Anderson County sought treatment at the hospital.

On Tuesday, officials announced that Terry L. Payne of Oak Ridge National Laboratory has volunteered to be the Anderson County campaign chair as Children’s Hospital, which plans to expand, seeks support to better serve the region’s children.

“I am pleased and honored to do my part in helping Children’s Hospital’s expansion project,” Payne said in a press release. “At some point while each was growing up, my son and two daughters received care from the wonderful Children’s Hospital staff. We are so fortunate to have a stand-alone hospital in our community that is dedicated to the well-being of our children’s health. I know that Anderson County will be proud to do their part.” [Read more…]

Anderson County school board honors high school staffers who saved girl

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Information from WYSH Radio

During Tuesday’s Anderson County Board of Education meeting, a group of teachers, principals, and other staff members were honored for saving a student’s life.

Last month, Brittany Overton went into cardiac arrest in the school courtyard before classes began. On Tuesday, leaders honored the crew of teachers, principals, and staff members that helped bring her back to health. Overton attended the School Board meeting. [Read more…]

Y-12 donates DVDs, teddy bears to Children’s Hospital

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B&W Y-12 Donate DVDs to East Tennessee Children's Hospital

AnnMarie Corbett, Lily Matthiessen, KelliAnn, Kevin, Emily and Victoria Corbett deliver DVDs to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. More than 350 DVDs were collected at Y-12 for patients at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. (Photos courtesy B&W Y-12)

More than 350 DVDs and some 360 teddy bears were collected by Y-12 National Security Complex employees for patients at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville.

The DVDs were collected as part of the “DVDs for Joy” campaign, which is the brainchild of KelliAnn Corbett, daughter of B&W Y-12’s Kevin Corbett. KelliAnn and her sisters collected DVDs at some Oak Ridge schools last year, and they invited “Y-12ers” to join them this year. Kathi Hofstad, ETCH coordinator for volunteer services and programs, said the DVDs gathered have helped create a mobile library where families can check out movies to entertain them during their stay at the hospital. [Read more…]

Children’s Hospital volunteer director to discuss neonatal abstinence syndrome

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Cheryl Allmon

Cheryl Allmon

“Holding Little Lives in Our Hands” is a presentation that describes the dramatic rise of neonatal abstinence syndrome across eastern Tennessee and what East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is doing about it. It will be presented to the Altrusa Club on Sept. 25 by Cheryl Allmon, director of volunteer services and programs at Children’s Hospital.

Children’s Hospital has received national attention for their multifaceted approach to treating infants who are born suffering from prescription drug dependence. In 2012, the hospital treated nearly 300 infants suffering from withdrawal from drugs. The number of infants affected by addiction at birth continues to rise each year. The first step in treating the infants is to assess the severity of the addiction. [Read more…]

B&W Y-12, ATLC continue tradition, donate $15,000 to March of Dimes

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B&W Y-12 and ATLC Donate to March of Dimes

B&W Y-12 President and General Manager Chuck Spencer, left, March of Dimes Executive Director Susan Racek, and Atomic Trades and Labor Council President Steve Jones with a $15,000 donation to help improve the health of all babies. (Submitted photos)

Submitted

B&W Y-12 and Atomic Trades and Labor Council marked the 15th year of the Y-12 National Security Complex’s support of The March of Dimes Tennessee Chapter with a $15,000 donation to advance maternal and infant health in the East Tennessee Community.

“B&W Y-12 and the ATLC have been incredible supporters of our work to help fund research and projects in East Tennessee communities,” said Susie Racek, executive director for March of Dimes East Tennessee Divisions. “They have been instrumental in supporting projects in the local hospital NICUs (neonatal intensive care units) and, in particular, funding and helping create the ‘Butterfly Room’ in East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, where families of premature babies who will not be going home can privately spend their last moments with the child.” [Read more…]

Oak Ridge emergency workers, preschool checking child car seats

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Child Seat Safety Checkpoint

The Oak Ridge police and fire departments have teamed up with the Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital to have a quarterly child seat safety checkpoint. By mid-morning Thursday, they had replaced seven expired or damaged seats.

The Oak Ridge police and fire departments have teamed up with the Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital to have a quarterly child seat safety checkpoint.

By mid-morning Thursday, the team had replaced seven expired or damaged seats.

The free safety checkpoint continued until 12:30 p.m. Friday on New York Avenue across from the preschool. Car seats were checked and installed by certified technicians.

On Friday night, Oak Ridge Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo said the team had checked 72 car seats and removed 31 unsafe seats.

“Great to know that we have made 31 kids that much safer over the past two days,” Waldo said. [Read more…]

Gospel concert in Oliver Springs helps infant with serious health problems

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Ava Rose Brown

Ava Rose Brown

A concert in Oliver Springs tonight will help a family with an infant with serious health problems.

The gospel benefit concert for Ava Rose Brown is scheduled from 6-9 p.m. today at Beech Park Baptist Church on East Tri County Boulevard in Oliver Springs.

It will help Ava Rose’s parents, Tiffany and Eddie Brown, purchase a van and remodel their home, concert organizer and family friend Kevin Craft said. He said Eddie and Tiffany Brown, who also have two other children, are now living with a relative in Oak Ridge, and their home is partially remodeled.

[Read more…]

IHOP benefit for Children’s Hospital on Tuesday

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Get a free short stack of delicious IHOP pancakes on Tuesday, Feb. 5, from 7 a.m. until 10p.m. and benefit Children’s Hospital.

In return for the free pancakes, guests will be asked to consider leaving a donation for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. All donations made at area IHOP restaurants will stay in your community, benefiting East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

[Read more…]