As a mom and know this is terrifying, but she's got me, I'm taking care of here. Perform surgery on these children before they've even been born yet to like correct these issues. We offer everything. Any procedure you know of, we do offer it here. It's mom and the baby. Take us through like what that feels like.
Yes. That much pressure. What goes through your mind? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Hey there.
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Today meet two incredible women who are shaping the future of Indiana through their life-changing work. At Riley Children's Health and Riley Children's Foundation, Dr. Mustafa is performing life-saving fetal surgeries while Meghan Freeman is building bridges between the hospital, the community, and the people who make it all possible.
This episode is gonna explore the future of Riley Children's Foundation with their new CEO, and talk about what is happening in children's health at Riley Children's Health, it's gonna be a, a while that my mind has already been blown like three times and we've been in the room for five minutes maybe.
I'm really excited to welcome you guys here. Uh, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks. A thank you. Thank you. Uh, I, again, I, I led with saying my mind has already been blown. We were talking about some of the work that you're doing, Dr. Mustafa and. Like I didn't even believe that it was real. Like these were real operations procedures.
Yeah. Like the work you're doing is incredible and I'm excited to get into that. Yeah. Before we get there, we do, I do want to establish the difference between Riley Children's Foundation, Riley Children's Hospital, Riley Children's Health, and the research that are going on. Meghan, can you like talk about the different plays, Inre ecosystem?
So right now we've got Riley Children's Foundation. That's where I come from. And we are the fundraising arm for Riley Children's Health and all Riley affiliated research. So when we talk about Riley Children's Health, we're talking about a statewide network of care for kids from Evansville to Fort Wayne and South Bend.
Um, and then when we talk about Riley Hospital for Children, we are talking about our downtown location where, um, a lot of our most acute care takes place. We also have care that takes place at IU Health North. We are in. 20 communities throughout the state for. Some of the more ambulatory and acute services as well.
Okay. But providing care right. To all 92 counties? Yes. We provide care all across the state in all 92 counties to hundreds of thousands of kids every year. Okay. I'm gonna ask the softball question early. Where does the name Riley come from? James Whitcomb Riley. Ah, there it is. Okay. Poet. Oh, this is new to me too.
Yeah, the, the Hoosier poet. The Hoosier poet from Greenfield. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Nice. That's, I could have probably, yeah. You know, piece that one together. Does that makes sense? So after he passed away a group of his friends, and it's actually the foundation was founded two years before the hospital. So a group of James Whitcomb Riley's friends came together to form the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association.
And so they raised money all across the state, including nickels and dimes from kids everywhere that came and eventually. Built the hospital itself, which initially opened its doors in 1924. So 101 years old. Wow. Okay. Amazing. And what it looked like in 1924 is a lot different than what it looks like today.
Can you imagine what they would think if we were like, guess what we're doing? Guess what Dr. Mustafa is doing? I can't imagine. Yeah. And so now I wanna talk about this journey that, yeah. So with the work that the foundation is doing, obviously you're the philanthropic arm. Yeah. You're raising money for.
Research, raising money for, I mean, all sorts of things. One of those is getting top level talent to the state of Indiana, to Riley Children's Health. Yes, correct. So part of what we do and one of our main pillars for um, every Child Deserves Riley, which is our current $300 million campaign, is recruit and retain.
And part of. Part of the funds that donors give us, go toward recruiting some of the best talent in the world so that kids in Indiana have access to that level of care without having to leave the state. And one of those amazing gets for us was Dr. Mustafa. Oh, amazing. Okay. So Dr. Mustafa. Yes. You're not originally from the state of Indiana?
No, I'm not. Where, where did you grow up? So I grew up back home in Iraq, and uh, that's where I finished my med school. Yes. Um, I got drawn to OB-GYN from there. Um, so then me, I met, I met my husband in med school and we decided after med school we wanna, you know, explore more advanced training, what other places have to offer.
So we decided to come to the States and that's where I decided to do my OB-GYN residency here. Uh, I did it in Mount Sinai, New York. And then, um, you'll see I'm very much into more training. Okay. I get, I wanna learn more. So, well we were lifting it up. Yeah. Like multiple residencies and fellowships and all this stuff.
Yes. So that was OB-GYN residency, four years in New York. And, um, during that time I really got into high-risk pregnancy and particularly ultrasound on fetuses and stuff like that. So. That's the route you take towards maternal-fetal medicine. People know it as high-risk OB docs. Mm-hmm. Or some people call it perinatology kind of thing.
So that's like a three years fellowship that I did in University of Minnesota. Um, and then I wanted to do even more than that because that's where I got introduced to fetal surgery during my training. And I thought, um, I was. Told by my peers, my hand skills are really good. My surgical skills, my patient rapport.
So I was fed by that by my peers and I was like, okay, so if they see that in me, I should just take it to another level kind of thing. Yeah. You're saying fetal surgery became like, yes. Your, your specialty. It became the Exactly. So to do that nowadays, back, back then, in the days you used to get, uh, like godfathered into that by being trained by someone in your institution kind of thing.
Nowadays there's like more formal training for it. So that's what I did. Two extra years of fellowship, um, in Maryland. And afterwards I got recruited by the foundation and Riley. So what was the, the timeframe between you go to university? Yes. And you get like a professional job. Like how long of training in fellowships?
My nurse, my nurse counted those years, I shall tell you. But basically. Uh, so Prima met, that's six years and then four years. That's seven and three. 10 and two 12. So yeah, med school to here, 12 years. Wow. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's a lot of training. Oh my gosh. A lot of time ask. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Ask my husband.
He'll tell you. Yeah. Is he, is? So he, you met him in med school, is he also a, a Yes, he's a physician, but um, he is, uh, he's internal medicine here in IU Health as well. He didn't have the hand skills. It's not about the hand skill. He's more of, I don't know if you watched House the show. Yeah. A great show. He is just like, has that mindset.
He's very smart. He used to be top three on the class and he just wanna. Deal with the whole thing. And that's why he was naturally into subspecialty. Yeah. So he's doing the whole internal medicine field, if that makes sense. Fetal surgery became your specialty. Yeah. And one, uh, rare condition in particular, right?
Yeah. The twin to twin transfusion syndrome. Yeah. Or TTTS. Yes. Yes. Uh, and so explain to, to us, like, like you are known specifically, like people come from around the country to work with you. Yes. So we get. Patients from all over Indiana and from the neighboring states, um, even from Indiana. We get like Ohio, sometimes Kentucky.
Close spaces we get even far away. We just got recently a consult from, um, like from Asia as well. No way. You know, those are more like self-referred patients. Mm-hmm. To, um, so, but I've just heard that you're an expert in this. They, they hear Yep. They hear about it and they just, it's, it's okay to brag a little bit in here.
It's fine. I, I'll hype you up. Yeah, sure. Thank you so much. So, but basically we deal with conditions if the baby has something that might affect their survival or might cause a severe morbidity. So it's not like any fetal anomaly. Some of them, it's just like, you know, we'll take care of it after a baby's out.
But it's those conditions that if we don't do something, babies might not make it. Yeah. Or might have really bad outcome kind of thing. So twin-to-twin transfusion, the one you mentioned is one of them in which you have a twins share a placenta and one baby kind of, um, kind of bleed into the other baby kind of thing.
So that results in a cascade of things. That eventually, if you don't treat it we'll, we might lose both twins kind of thing. Yeah. So we use laser surgery and to kind of identify those vessel connections between babies in which babies are bleeding into it kind of thing, and ablate those vessels. So that's like one of many offerings that we offer at the vessel, like, but you're going like, you know, you guys.
Someone on an ultrasound or Yes. Or one of the pre screenings. Yes. Yes. Forgive me. I don't have kids, so I have not gone through. Okay. One day. One day, one day. I'll know. Right? At the current moment I have no idea what that process looks like. Okay. Um, but somewhere in the process you like identify this? Yes.
You identify an ultrasound that's very smart. Yep. Uh, they come to the Fetal Center, or Riley Fetal Center, and there's only 15 fetal surgery centers across the United States. Yes. But even those, like, not everyone offers like the whole spectrum kind of thing. Yeah. There are multiple things that you can offer.
Some of them offer some of these things. We, uh, we're proud that we offer the whole spectrum of fetal surgery. We'll talk a little bit more about other things, but yes, they come to Riley Fetal Center, which is. In Riley Children's Hospital in downtown Indy, uh, the foundation and the children's hospital built an amazing tower called the maternity Tower till now, not everyone really knows about it, but we have an amazing maternity tower within the children's hospital that now we do all the labor and delivery and care for moms there.
So all within the same building, moms and babies. Wow. Which is amazing. And that's where our operating room is. That's where the fetal center. And so your. Perform surgery mm-hmm. On these children before they've even been born yet Yes. To like correct these issues. Yes, absolutely. Right? Yes. I can only, I like, you know, they say like, it's like brain surgery or whatever.
Yeah. And it's like, that's like on a full grown human, I can only imagine how, yeah. How, like, how long has this type of practice been going on? So laser for twin-to-twin has been about one to two decades kind of thing. But the newer thing is like the spina bifida. We just got the press release about like Riley now offering the surgery.
So those are like defects in the backbone. Mm-hmm. Um, resulting that the nerves like protruding outside of the bone kind of thing. So these are more newer and we are offering it here at Riley and it's a more advanced form technique kind of thing. So the technique that's offered elsewhere, it's called the open technique.
And here we offer fetoscopy. So we go with cameras inside the uterus, uh, fix baby's back and come out. So doctor, what would happen? So what happens when those babies are born without? The type of intervention that you provide? Yeah, so particularly for spine, like for twin-to-twin transfusion, if we don't treat it, they don't make it.
Okay. So that's a survival issue. But for spina bifida, if we don't offer the repair, then those babies are born with severe fluid in their brain. Something called hydrocephalus that require multiple procedures, and they are born. Problem movement, lower extremities. So some of them even are wheelchair bound.
So the procedure helps preserve those nerves and prevent that continuous damage. How, how old is that procedure? That procedure is pretty, like it's, it started with the open technique a decade, but the fetoscopy has been only a few years, like the past five years. So like how old would the first recipient of the open?
I would say 2012. The open technique 2012. So like there's a. 10-year-old, let's say 13-year-old. Yeah. That's like getting ready to start Driver's ed. Yeah. Whose life is, yeah. Completely changed like the kiddos are from back then. Now they're making it into kind of late childhood, so the data are still building up on these type of things because those kiddos who had it back then, now they're.
You know, getting into late childhood. Oh my gosh. And so a lot of the work is, is it done through like laser and like that type or like your hands? So the spina bifida, it's, no, it's all your hands, but it depends like what you put in your hands kind of thing. So we use, I don't know if you've had a friend or someone who had a gallbladder removed or appendix removed.
They do, like nowadays, laparoscopy. So they put like small cameras inside. So we use the same technology to go inside the uterus that. Yeah. Wow. A lot of times I'll usually like, you know what, we're not, we're not like saving lives here. We're not curing cancer It's like we're we, were hosting a podcast. Yeah. You legitimately are saving lives.
Oh, thank you. That, that is incredible. That's so be, uh, when you think about, you know, coming from Iraq Yes. To making it through, I mean, New York to Minnesota, down to Indianapolis. Yeah. What was appealing about coming to Riley? Children's Hospital for you? Yeah, from the provider side, we talk as colleagues.
There's only handful of us in the country. Can I? How many it like fetal surgery specialists. So it was MFMs who are fetal surgeons, about 20 to 25 kind of thing that, so we know each other really well and we talk about struggles. Right? And one struggle that many people can tell you about is the support.
Support whether financial support, research support, or specialties support. And there's one major support is labor and delivery support. Okay? So you have, you need the money to buy instruments, to get nursing support, to get OR nurses, to get sonographers, all that. You need research because all everything you do is so new.
You wanna know how to improve, right? And then you need, um, very important labor and delivery. Many of my colleagues struggle. They have to operate somewhere. While the nearest labor and delivery, like if something happened during their procedure, the patient has to go by ambulance somewhere else. Mm. While I operate within one space where my neonatologist, pediatric surgeon, neurosurgeon, literally.
Very close to me kind of thing. And then that's specialty support. So, okay. I operate on babies with back defect, neurosurgical problems, so I do need a, someone who's gonna take care of this kiddos later on. Neurosurgeon, neurologist, nephrologist. Spina bifida clinic. So if you don't have these resources, you cannot offer this procedure.
That's why I said many centers, they might be fetal surgery centers, but they don't really offer the whole spectrum 'cause they don't have the support to offer those kind of procedures. So that was appealing. In Riley, there was clinical support. Money, support, research, support, and most importantly, multidisciplinary specialist support.
I mean, the urology team here is top five in the country. Neurosurgery team here is the top something in the country. So of course I'll be drawn here. Yeah, and I think that's a piece that maybe we forget about as Hoosiers. Our lifelong Hoosier, right? Yeah. It's like when someone goes like says, oh, uh, so and so like their child was in Riley.
It's like, oh, that's serious. But it's like That's the hospital in Indy. Yeah. And we don't necessarily think of it on a. National or global. Mm-hmm. International stage. Oh yeah. Of the impact and how Riley Children's Health stacks up across the country. Absolutely. Meghan, maybe you could speak to where that kind of like lies.
Yeah. So we, when we look at Riley Children's Health, we tend to come at things in a typical Hoosier humble mentality. When in reality Riley is one of the premier pediatric institutions. In the world it provides, just like Dr. Mustafa said, that wraparound support for any condition. So whether you are coming in with in need of a stem cell transplant or any of these other massively acute conditions that kids have, we also treat just your standard.
Well, child visits. So you could, Riley is not just for the sickest of the sick. I mean, we can, and we do support that level of care, but we also provide care for general pediatrics. We also provide care in a way that is truly evidence-based and, um, on the leading edge for mental health. So we are facing a massive mental health crisis in our state and in our country.
And I think Riley is at the forefront of being able to provide mental health care and mental health support for some of these kids. We're now embedded embedding. Mental health resources in pediatrician and family medicine offices so that we will be able to support between 70 and 80,000 kids in their mental health struggles across the state.
And then if you're looking at the work that Dr. Mustafa provides, it is that full spectrum. And not just that, you know, Riley Children's Health is an actual children's hospital, so a lot of times you look at hospitals that provide pediatric care. Yeah. But I would say are not, it's the same thing as when you go to a restaurant, okay.
And you go to a restaurant and you're like, you have a kid's menu, but are you family friendly? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Those are very different things. And like, I'm a mom, so I understand when I go to a restaurant that has a kid's menu, like, yes, you maybe provide like chicken fingers, but like, are you gonna be okay if like my kid, I don't know, knocks a drink on the floor?
Yeah. And like that is to a much, much smaller scale. Um, what. Riley provides from like a full spectrum children's hospital, so we have our child life resources, so they'll come in and help kids and really make some of those really scary moments, less scary. We have Camp Riley down in Bloomington at Bradford Woods, and that's one of those places where man kids who have never had a chance to go to camp, get to go to camp, and they provide kind of that level of care one-to-one or one to some, so that they can safely have that experience and for like the parents.
Yeah, they've never been able to let their kids go because they haven't had that level of confidence. Camp Riley provides that. We also have social work and a school program, so if your kids in long-term care, they don't have to feel behind at school. And then it just gives a lot of onus to the idea of being a children's hospital, to being a family.
Centered place. Yeah. For care. And when Dr. Mustafa talks about the maternity tower, I can't underscore the importance of having mom and baby under that same roof and to be able to provide care for both of them. Like when we're looking at the child and the baby. Riley, for years has been able to provide a lot of care, expert care for that child.
This way, not only will they be able to provide care for the child, they're also providing care for mom. And so mom can get that same level of care that she needs, but doesn't have to leave her baby. Yeah. And in past years it's been, you know, you deliver at Methodist and if your child needed to be transported to Riley, to the NICU at Riley, your baby who you have grown is now gone like not in the same building as you, and then you have to go and it just.
Especially man moms who delivered at IU Health North and then they had just, when you are a high-risk pregnancy or you're identified as a high-risk pregnancy, it is so important to have a full team. Wrapped around you, supporting you, supporting your family, supporting your baby, and supporting your health so that your outcomes are significantly better and you're coming in there feeling calm, feeling supported, and feeling like you have an entire team behind you.
And that's what RI does. That's what Dr. Mustafa and her team do. They give you all of that. We might just have to cut the episode there. That's a wrap. Like that was, it's cool. And you just made that in a two minute, you know, 120 seconds. I get it. Like it clicks for me. Mm-hmm. And it clicks of like, how. Our, like Indiana's, Riley Children's Health.
Riley Children's Health is, you know, known. And it is like competing with, you know, the, I dunno. You talk about Minnesota, you talk about New York. Mm-hmm. You talk about these big places, like being one of 15, uh, what fetal surgery centers in the like, that's cool. There's only 20. Specialists like you? Yeah.
In the, like in the world. In the country. In the country. I mean, honestly like That's nuts. Yeah. Like that means there are 30 states that don't have one. Well, I like it when we have stuff that other states don't. I'll say it. Yeah. And many states don't have it. I mean that's until like Riley decided to build the program, there wasn't an Indiana and people had to.
Go to other states to get those care. Mm-hmm. And then stay away from family, from your loved ones, travel distances and, you know, it's so stressful being pregnant and being told all these news. Yeah. My, uh, I'm gonna pull a family story in here. 'cause I've never had to say this one on there. My grandmother, okay.
When she had my, she had six kids. Mm-hmm. Um, her oldest son got very, very sick when, and this would've been in like the 19. Forties, early fifties. Mm-hmm. Maybe let's say, let's say early to mid fifties. And she had to go spend, she had spent seven weeks in Minnesota at the Mayo Clinic. Wow. And you talk about like, that was 70 years ago.
But it's like we didn't have the specialist or whatever was needed here in Indiana and to like uproot your life and leave your other five kids and your husband behind. And just like, she talks about like living out of a hospital room in Minnesota. Yeah. And it was like. That's wild. Yeah. Like I like that you used to about family should not have to do that.
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, like this might have been, I don't know when like the Ronald McDonald house or whatever was created, but I don't, I don't know if that was around in the fifties, but yeah, she said it was a crazy experience and so, yeah. And even for those who come like a little bit far away, I mean, we see patients from everywhere.
Like for Twain, Evansville, crown Point, name it some, sometimes it's a little bit far. And we do have the resources, um, like within Riley Children's a Ronald McDonald House. And we do have a lot of donors and people that we work with and to provide some like accommodations near the hospital too. So we do have like all the resources that you can think of and imagine kind of thing.
Yeah. Well, I do want to talk about like when you're doing something this specialized, like. Fetal surgery. Mm-hmm. Like, again, it just like blows my mind. Like I literally feel like I'm in, in the studio with the superhero today. Oh. Like take us through the first time. Yeah. Like you are in charge mm-hmm. Of a surgery to help, whether it's repair spina bifida or the TTTS surgery.
Or is this surgery? Yeah. You got it. You got it. Come on, look at you. Me up. Let's go. Um. Take us through like what that feels like. Yeah. Because I can only imagine. Yeah. Again, like I post videos and host a podcast. Yeah. Like it's not lifesaving work here, but I can't imagine having Yes. That much pressure.
Yeah. What goes through your mind? It's definitely a lot of pressure. Um, I wouldn't say pressure from my necessarily my peers or the hospital or anything. It's just me as a person trying to provide the best for my patient. And I think no matter how many procedures you do, you still get the same feeling.
Of, um, like sometimes people tell me, oh, you're very possessive of your patients. That's like a wrapper to you build and you truly become family to them. I mean, I scan their kiddo throughout pregnancy and I see them frequently, and I, I'm the one who gives them those news and all about procedure, so it's very frightening time.
So I I, we get connected and I become very protective and. Uh, careful of their health and baby's health. So I think if any pressure is just for me as a physician trying to do my best for my patient, if that makes sense. Yeah. Well it's like for you it might be your 100th or 200th Yeah. Time doing this procedure.
Yeah. But for them it's the only time probably. Exactly. Hopefully like you, just like you, they've never heard of it. No, most of the time, like in their wildest dreams, like they wouldn't think someone will tell them, oh, I have to go in your womb and do this. Right. Yeah. So it's scary. I mean, it's not, you're telling them only bad news.
You're telling 'em, oh, I have to do surgery on you. What, what's more challenging? Delivering the news for the first time and having that conversation or doing the actual procedure? I think, um, they both are very challenge, equally challenging and complete honesty. Um, some, sometimes you get patients react differently to news, right?
Like if you get bad news. Uh, sometimes you get angry or in denial, or like you don't know. Yeah. What is she saying? Like, she's, are you serious? You wanna poke me? Like, yeah. Sometimes you get that reaction and you just have to be calm and understanding and put yourself in their shoes. Yeah. No matter how much, you know, just remember that this is like.
Just like you said, in their wildest dream. Yeah. We would not even imagine that having difficult conversations are never easy. You know, like breaking up with your middle school girlfriend was like the greatest. And it's like, and then it's like, that's not easy too. Yeah. Oh gosh. Like I, that's a whole different kind of, I just remember like sitting there, you, that's different type of horror, but it's like the conversations can be so hard to like just get going.
Oh, yeah. And, and yeah. Put yourself in their shoes. Yeah. Like this is the biggest news they may ever receive in their entire life. Yeah. Yeah. Like, wow. Yeah. I mean, with time you get calmer. People know me, I'm like extremely calm. Especially, especially during the procedure. Like nothing like I, I don't like get shaken if something, so we do all kind of other procedure.
Like for example, I lead the Placenta Rita program. That's like a different thing, but these are procedures that can be very bloody. Okay? Placenta is growing inside the uterus and could bleed. So you, you as with time, you build that type person, you become calm and you don't let blood. Shake you down. Or complications.
Yeah. You just deal with it. Just deal with it. Just deal with it. What? Well, I just think being a mom and being pregnant and you're already under Yeah. All you know being, being a pregnant woman, being pregnant in this day and age you get. Messages thrown at you all the time. Oh, do this. Don't do this. Make sure you do this.
Make sure you don't do this. And then to add on top of it, going in and having an ultrasound and having that ultrasound tech be like, I'll be right back. I need to go get a doctor. And then, then you have to go in and then to have somebody with the confidence and the calm demeanor and the kind of. Full scope of services that RI have to sit there and have that conversation with you is so important because then you can go in as a mom and know this is terrifying, but I, but she's got me.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm taking care of here. Yeah, agree. That's the feeling most highly patients get. I mean, to really put it down, it's like a customer service almost, or that, but you have to build trust. Like Yeah, you have to. They have to trust you to like Yeah. You know, have this operation. And it's also, by the way, it also comes from the referring providers because during whatever you do, you have to build that very good relationship with.
Providers across Indiana. So, because those are people who are gonna refer to you, and if they trust you and they have, you know, good rapport with you, they will transfer that to their patients. I'm sending you to Riley, they're, they're excellent and they'll take an excellent care of you. This patient comes to me already loaded with that information, if that makes sense.
Yeah. That's the other thing too. I think I've talked about this on the podcast before of like. The older I get, the more I realize that not every doctor is created equal. Mm-hmm. And not every doctor has the same specialty. So like I grew up in rural northern Indiana, so like I grew up thinking, oh yeah, our family, like he just is a genius and he knows everything.
Yeah. He knows everything. And then you get through and you realize like, my mom did cancer treatment up at Goshen. And then I hear like, oh, well then. There are other cancer centers around the country that might be like this next tier of better specialists or this or that. And like learning that, you know, doctors have specialties and things that they're good at and some are, I don't wanna say better word, but like some get like, you know, there's only 20 of you in the world.
Mm-hmm. Or in the country. Yeah. Like that's pretty cool. Yeah. I don't know. And we know each other really well. Yeah. That's, uh, wow. What do you think? The biggest misconception is around, oh my, like specialized medicine or just like the job, right? Mm-hmm. Like, you know, people come to you, it's their worst, like, you know, their worst day.
Like really hard stuff. Yeah. Yeah. What, what's like, I think, I think, and then subsequently their best day. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think nowadays in the era of social media. That you, just, like you said, you can get loaded with information, right? If you Google anything, then social media starts showing you all the videos related to what you Googled, so some that might have a negative effect into kind of hearing other stories that might not be related to you.
Yeah. Just the fact that you have twins, it doesn't necessarily mean you're exactly like that person's story or this person's story, if that makes sense. How long have you been in the field of medicine? From like beginning of med school? Oh, um, so that's 2007. 2007. Okay. So I even imagine from 2007 to now the amount of people.
Because of the access to information. Yeah. It's like, well, Chad GPTs told me this, that, or the other thing. Open, open evidence. Chad GPT. Blogs. Yeah, social media. Instant TikTok. Every mom, now, sometimes they post their child's stories and so patient come to me, oh, I saw this mom on TikTok and she said this and that, and I joined this group who?
The kiddos have the same condition, and I tell them, that's great. Having support is good, but just make sure you don't translate everything to you like Yeah, things are different. Oh my. You are an individual patient. Yeah. And a. What is, what happens to one child, what happens in one fetal surgery? Mm-hmm.
What happens in one situation can be completely different from you. Yeah. And your own experience. I, I had a discussion with someone from, um, the Simon Cancer Center. Mm-hmm. And they talked about the, I can't remember the doctor's name, apologies. But he is like the guy who. Uh, treated Lance Armstrong from Testicular Cancer.
Oh, wow. And he has his own like sub Reddit where guys that get diagnosed with testicular cancer have like, found him and like, come from Reddit. Oh, wow. And then come to Indianapolis to get treated. And I was just like, the power of like community and social media, it's like, can be so good. And then on the other side, it's.
Yeah, it could be very scary. Like WebMD, everything is the worst thing ever. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. I do want to talk more about, um, Riley, the whole organization, you know, from the foundation to help and how it's all working. And I know, uh, Meghan, that's kind of like you are in marketing communications for the foundation, correct?
Yeah. So what we do is provide support for a multitude of different programs. Lot of different core pillar areas for Riley Children's Health and the research arms is, is this like, uh, is dance marathon fall under a foundation dance marathon? Yes. Yes. Our youth Philanthropy. Yeah. Yes. Uh, Casey Krause was like really involved in mm-hmm.
On our board. He's on the board. Yes. He is a, a dear friend of mine and he's wonderful. Uh, he sing and my cousin Hunter Haynes Okay. Yeah. Was also on the board. I used, they have a huge, um. The biggest. Yeah, the biggest, right. Um, yeah. Okay. So that's like a piece of it. Yeah. So what we do is from your smallest community, fundraisers, your five Ks, you're rounding up at the register at Costco and Walmart to.
Um, transformational gifts of $5 million or more, like we, all of that flows through the foundation to support Riley Children's Health and the aims of transforming children's health and improving outcomes for kids across the world. I think we launched our $300 million campaign. Every Child Deserves Riley in March, publicly in March of this year at the Red for Our Kids Gala.
Um, we Red is our Pinnacle fundraising event. And by that I mean it's been going on for three years, so, hey. Um, but we, what we do at what we did at that event this year was launch this campaign. It's the most ambitious campaign in Riley history. We are aiming to raise that $300 million. We're at about 225 million to date.
Hey, I know. Well, our, our data headed at 200, so let's go. We're rocking roll. Yeah, so we launched at, we launched in March at just over about 215 million. Um, that is typical for comprehensive campaigns like this. Yeah. We had the leadership phase for a few years where we were, you know, forming those deep connections with.
High dollar donors. Yeah. And kind of the feasibility study of how much can we raise of all those aspects. And then we developed the campaign look, feel brand. Mm-hmm. Um, launched that our five pillars are around recruit and retain, um, family support services. So child life and, and school program, like I mentioned.
And then we also have research, which is a big one, mental health, which is a big one. And then access is also one of our key areas, making sure that every child has access to the services that Riley Children's Health provides across the state and across the country. Hey, Indiana, if you're a business owner with big plans, listen up.
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Iraq Uhhuh to Indiana. Uhhuh. Like, when you get here, what were your, what were your thoughts? The feelings? Yeah. How does it feel to come and be part of Yeah. How long have you been in Indiana now? Um, how long? We've been three years now. Three years? Yes. I've been also in the East coast. If you remember, I bounced between Med Midwest and East Coast and, um, as a family, I have my husband and my three kids with me as a family.
We just got drawn to the midwife. And I, I'll be very honest here, the kind of like the family, um, the culture and the family connections and the strong community that we had back home we just founded here. Um, and um, just. Having the friends of my kids in school and seeing the good families, good kids, being in a very strong knit community.
We, uh, we loved it here. How did you pick, like what part of town? What part of We're in Carmel. Okay. How did you land on, like when you were doing your research and schools? Schools? Yeah. So, okay. You saw that, that one like viral TikTok of the, I was like, where are good schools and just. There you go. I have him, uh, now he's gonna be high schooler, and I have two in elementary school.
Amazing. Okay. Yeah. So you landed in Carmel. Mm-hmm. Um, that's, that's so awesome. I love hearing you. Yeah. And then I, the final question I have for you is, what does the state of Indiana need to know about Riley Children's Health? Meghan said it's really beautifully, like any service you can think of. It's available at this hospital from mom and from baby.
Sometimes providers call our maternity service. So now it's not Riley. Like sometimes I read comments, oh, but I thought they only take care of children. It's not, it's mom and the baby nowadays. So this is very important to know and sometimes providers call us. Do you offer this? We offer everything. Like any procedure you know of that.
Some people offer it. I don't know where in the world we do offer it here. Can you, do you have people that just come in and are like, you know, I want to. Like they're, they didn't get like prior referred to you all. There's like come in like, Hey, we're pregnant and we want to, oh yeah. We get, we get that all the time and no way.
We, we, like, we offer also new innovative things. So nowadays we offer something called laser for VA privia. These are vessels that's on where the baby comes out from. So she cannot have vaginal birth. We do have a giant program for placenta accreta. The one I told you about, this is a very scary condition, requires level IV maternity care.
So our maternity tower is level IV and that's not everywhere. Is that, how is, is level IV the highest? Oh, it's the highest. Highest, yeah, it's the highest four out four. And what's even more unique about it? We have an adult ICU in the maternity tower in the children's hospital, so I don't think that exists.
Anywhere else. In complete honesty, we can do some statistics and research, but I think this is the only children hospital with a maternity tower that has adult ICU staff. Yeah. By 24 hours clinical composition. So it's literally, if a mom had any high-risk condition complication, whether she or the unborn baby or the born baby Riley can provide those services.
Amazing. I love it. Yeah. I have one final question. Yes. We have 64 seconds left before you have to go back. Save some lives. When you're not Yeah. Down at the hospital. Yes. Literally saving lives. Mm-hmm. Like performing surgery. What do I do? What do you do? Where are you hanging out at? Where did you, where did you find I love to travel.
I love traveling, but if I'm not traveling nowadays I turned into a gym, Gurley. Oh. I used to be an outdoor person, um, focusing on cardio. So nowadays I'm more into strength training. So yeah. Where do you train at? I do a Life Time. Nice. Um, so I try to kind of like work on the older you get, you realize you have to do resistance training.
There you go. Yeah. Okay. Where, uh, where around central Indiana makes you feel the most like home? I always tell my husband, once I get the parameter of this city, I feel. Weird feeling. I feel calm. Yeah. 'cause I'm getting closer to home and kids and that's my safe space kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. Like honestly, and I feel the same with like the whole Hamilton County and um, north Indy Yeah.
Yeah. All good. I love it. Well, hey, thank you so much for the, for one coming on the show and two for the incredible work that you're doing. Absolutely. Thank you. Having me like my. Is still blown. Um, thank for having me. Appreciate it. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Keep up. All the great work. Thank you. Like I can't wait to like see your yourself too.
Your, your Nobel Peace Prize in the few years or whatever it might be like. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. One thing that you mentioned that really interest me was Indiana's youth mental health crisis. Mm-hmm. Obviously, you know, Casey Kraus and New Shoe Day and all the work that they're doing, I run every Wednesday with them.
Uh, and I know that this is a huge issue and I think through. Social media and just like, it's hard to be a kid today. It's, and I know you guys are doing a, a ton of work there and I'd love to hear more about it. I think the stat we saw was nearly al, almost one in two high schoolers, a report that they, a report of having struggled with depression.
Yeah. And I think that, you know, the, the stats vary based on. Where you are and what state you're in. You know, Indiana is, tends to trend a little low, um, nationwide in our youth mental health. And so one of the things that Riley at the foundation side and Riley Children's Health has done is dive into evidence-based research on some of these ways to mitigate the youth mental health crisis.
So one of the things that they found was. Having that embedded mental health resource in a pediatrician's office. So if you are, um, a parent and you're taking your child for their checkup and you're like, Hey, you know, my kid's been having a lot of just like anxiety and you know, just some intrusive thoughts around this, that or the other, your pediatrician can assess and have that mental health resource in their office to kind of have that conversation to see, okay, like what should we do next?
Is this something that we need to elevate to. Um, a more regular conversation or is, can I provide tools and resources that they need here? And so being able to do that, and that was full, that was funded through a grant from the Lechleiter, from the White Oak Foundation, Lechleiters, and the State, the FSSA.
Mm-hmm. So there was a kind of $8 million gift that we received, um, from John and Sarah Lechleiter that provided. Support for these embedded resources across across the state, across the state is, is like one of the cool pieces of that, I would say through, you know, whether it's suburban. Mm-hmm. Whether it's urban, whether it's rural Indiana.
Mm-hmm. Um, and especially like, like, uh, it's nice to live in central Indiana where there is this, you know, Riley Children's Health was like, there's, there's a lot of resources that tend to be congregated where a lot of people are. Mm-hmm. But as you get up into, yeah, the re like my hometown, like, I think we had one.
Primary care doctor in town, maybe like the family doctor classic, right? Yep. But, and this allows for access across the, yeah, across the state for no matter where you live, no matter what kind of community you come from, and you don't have to travel for it. You can have it in your own. Office in your own like comfortable pediatrician's office.
Talk to us about some of the other initiatives you had mentioned Camp Riley. Yeah. Like where this, you know, you're doing a $300 million campaign. Mm-hmm. Supports five pillars, which are, I mean, obviously all supporting, but where do we see this? At work in our community, camp Riley is one of the most visible.
Um, every summer over 300 kids come and are allowed to experience camp, which I think a lot of us take for granted of like, yeah, of course you go to camp. Uh, this is something where they, these are kids who run the spectrum of physical and cognitive disabilities. They can come and do, or cognitive and physical diagnoses.
They can come and do everything. They zipline and they go water skiing, and they do all the fun things that. Kids experience at summer camp in a way that's safe for them. So it is supported through Riley and there's Riley care there to make sure that these kids are safe and supported and to make sure their families feel comfortable allowing them to go there.
It is truly a magical experience for some of these kids. They come back year after year, and then they also have a way to come where the foundation and donors remove the financial barriers to that. So no camper ever turned away for financial. Reasons. We also have, um, and this is one that's a little less visible in the community, but still just as important as through our research, Riley affiliated research, so the IU School of Medicine and the Department of Pediatrics and the Wells Center, they are doing some of the most incredible research to help kids and to help.
These conditions, whether they are treatments or procedures. And so one example is, um, with type one diabetes. So our, our research arm through, um, one of the laboratories has come up with a drug that can delay the onset of type one diabetes. We're using it on kids. It's, you know, been tested, it's approved, it's FDA, approved.
And so these kids now can delay the onset of type one for, um, I can't remember the exact. Amount of time, but it is life changing for these kids. Yeah. And it's truly a, an example of the work being done in a lab that translates to actual clinical care and actual lives of children. Are you, uh, originally from Indiana?
I am. What, uh, what part? Early childhood in downtown, kind of central Indiana, near East Side. And then we moved to Greenfield, and then, oh, now I live downtown. Did you go to Greenfield High School? I went to Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon. Go, marauders. Uhhuh, come on. And then where'd you go to school? So I went to DePauw.
Oh yeah, let's go Tigers. Come on. Uh, did you think, you know, growing up from like the near East side, you greenfield that you were gonna end up working at Riley? So I was a Riley kid. Oh. Um, I was a Riley kid for about 10 years of my life through a chronic kidney condition that I had. Um, and no, because I think I'd spent so much time in the hospital, in and out, um, from different appointments that I was like, I never wanna be in this building again.
But then I grew up and I. Started working in different, um, I was always drawn to medical communications and I knew I was never gonna be a doctor, not because I have an. A fear of blood or anything, it's just too much math. So it turned into how can I support medicine and how can I be involved in medicine?
Yeah. But still using my liberal arts DePauw education. Absolutely. Where, where was the moment that, where it clicked of like, this is what I'm called to do. So I started at IU Health on the adult side doing, um, supporting neurosurgery and neurosciences. And I think that that's where I had that aha moment of, oh, this is comfortable.
Like, this feels right. This feels like not only am I. You know, having to stretch my skill, but I get to feel good about the work I'm doing. I get to see it making a difference in lives. And then when I went to the Riley Children's Health side and supported marketing at Riley Children's Health, and you're working with kids, and I wasn't a parent when I started at IU Health, but was when I started at Riley.
And I think that that's when you walk in the door and you see these children and they will. Break your heart and they will put it back together again. And they are incredible and brave and just wanting to be kids. And what I do is help them just be kids like they shouldn't. They shouldn't have to deal with many of the things they deal with.
And yet here they are taking it in stride. And when you see a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old, even younger or older, who is going through unimaginable conditions. And they are happy and they are playing and they are able to just exist as a child in the world. Yeah. That's really where, you know, the meaning comes in.
And, and how could you not want to, how could you not wanna do what I do? It, it takes a lot of courage and strength. And, and you talk about these kids that every day it's like, you need inspiration to get outta bed. It's like, here's a story. Exactly. Yeah. I, if we want to close out, like, do you have a, a story, how long have you been with, uh, with Ry?
So I have been with the foundation since, uh, 21. So over the last four years, is there a story that has just always resonated with you or stuck out of that you're, that you're in the right place? Probably Owen. Owen Lower, who, he was one of Dr. Mustafa's patients actually, and he is the child who, his mom, they did an ultrasound and they found a tumor on his neck that was bigger than his head and they were able to go in and through all manner of interventions, were able to partially deliver him, establish an airway.
And then fully deliver him, remove the tumor. And now he's, you know, he turns two in October and his parents are just these wonderful people who, he had a Harry Potter first birthday, and he's just this adorable sweet baby who wouldn't have the quality of life he has without Riley. And so I think. You know, he's one.
And then we have what's called the Riley Champions Program. It's sponsored by Kroger and they come in and every year we select around 10 kids with these incredible stories. Um, another one that sticks out is her name's Bri. She lives in Terre Haute. And she was hit, her family's car was hit by a drunk driver looking at Christmas lights, and she was in the hospital for.
Over 500 days. She had her 16th birthday there. The first time she was allowed to leave was to go to the Taylor Swift concert because a donor provided a suite. And so we were able to kind of concoct this whole thing and we surprised her and a bunch of other kids and we were able to take them to Taylor Swift.
And then she, um, she has been discharged and I was at the hospital the other day and I was. Walking through and I saw her and her mom for a checkup and got to hug them and check in and see how they're doing. And she just is incredible and like these kids are truly incredible and I'm very lucky that I get to have them as part of my life every day.
500 days. Yep. I, I hope I knock on wood, but I hope I never spend a 50 days like correct cumulative of like, even like checkups. Like I'm just. Like, Nope, man, they, these kids are incredible. Yeah. And that is, again, you need motivation to, you need any motivation on whatever day this ends up coming out. There it is.
Right there. Right there. It's go find, pick up a Riley Kids magazine. Yeah, just go to our website. We have a ton. And then I think, oh, the reason that I was even there is, you know, we did just announce our new CEO, Courtney Roberts and she, I, we were taking her to do a photo shoot and a video shoot, and she just is going to be one of.
One of the best additions to the foundation. She is a powerhouse, and I'm really excited to see how she leads us. Where did, where did she come from? Ivy Tech Foundation. Oh, heck yeah. Yeah. And they've doing so, so we recently announced it. She starts, um, we announced last week. She starts with us in September.
Man, I just could go, I could go on and on and on. If. If people want to get involved. Mm-hmm. Are there, and you talked about the gala, you talked about obviously the youth fundraiser side of like, uh, dance marathon. What are ways people can get involved to help make an impact? There's a lot of different ways too.
You mentioned we do have red for our kids. That's every March. Buy tickets, come to the gala. There's something called Experience Riley's, where you get to meet people like Dr. Mustafa and see the work they do. There's a lot of hands-on aspects of that. Is there like a surgery? We had the da Vinci robot there this year, so people got to come and play with the da Vinci robot.
That's crazy. Dance marathon. If you are. Uh, college or high school and they, you have a dance marathon, participating in that is a wonderful way. Um, donating to kids who participate in that is also wonderful, or students who participate in that is a wonderful way. If you're looking for more community-based, um, fundraisers, we have a whole community giving section of our philanthropic endeavors, so you can go and support Riley through a 5K and then obviously if you happen to have, you know, a few million dollars laying around and you wanna help kids.
We will happily. There you go. Happily take that. You heard it here first. Amazing. This has been an incredible episode. Thank you. Um, for all the work that, that you're doing, that Dr. Mustafa is doing. Like, I think when all of these brilliant minds come together and make an impact, like for the kids, you can't, can't beat that.
I'm still, again, like this has been a, uh, my mind was blown several times throughout the journey. I mean, I've talked to her many times and she still is. The work she does still and the work that many of those doctors do. Yeah. If you start talking to heart surgeons who operate on a heart the size of a strawberry, and you're like, wow, Dr.
Tartine, I think that the most common way you think, okay, I donate to the Riley Children's Foundation and it's going to help families in our community. Mm-hmm. You know, with whatever medical expenses, like I'd say, if you were saying very service level, but then it's like, oh, the. Recruiting and retaining piece of like getting the best talent, the one of 20 fetal surgeons in the country to come to Indianapolis.
Yes. Yeah. And like bringing this top level of talent to our to, to Riley Children's Health downtown. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Like, and that can make it, I don't know how many, I don't know how many surgeries or procedures, uh, Dr. Mustafa does in a year, but let's say it's. A hundred, I don't know, like a hundred different people were impacted.
Mm-hmm. By that. That's nuts. And then you think about the ripple effect of every child who comes in and is able to have a better outcome thrive, and then the lives that they impact. Like, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Riley. And so you think about just the ripple effect that every kid who comes out of there with a better outcome that they're gonna have on their families, on their communities, and you know, the world.
It's remarkable. Remarkable. That's the, that's the name. Remarkable. Right there. We, we are gonna round it out. Uh, there's three questions that I ask to every guest that comes on the show. The first one, we kind of talked about it a little bit earlier, but what's something that the world needs to know about Indiana?
I think the impact of Indiana, um, on sort of the global zeitgeist. So from motor sports, the greatest spectacle in racing and music with Michael Jackson and Mellencamp. And like jazz that came out of Indiana. And then you look at the pediatric health side of it, like we're completely blowing the minds of me, the medical community and the research and things that we have coming out.
And then, you know, Purdue gave us the most astronauts. Yeah, like Indiana has had a crucial impact on global events and I think we like to. Downplay it. But is is that, that that's like the, uh, the v the Vonnegut quote that's like, yeah, look at anywhere, something big's going on and there's a Hoosier, there's a Hoosier behind it.
Yeah. Something along that like, that's like, I need to that like Oh yeah. Talk about authors. I mean, you got John Green here, like it's, yeah. Come on. It's, it definitely punches above its weight class for sure. You sure do. Um, next question. This is where you get to share some love to something that, that maybe more Hoosiers need to know about.
What is a hidden gem in Indiana Myriad Fitness + Yoga at the Stutz. Downtown, I am there every day. Myriad, almost myriad. Health and fitness. Yeah. Okay. So it's, um, at the corner of the Stutz and it is all CrossFit, yoga, HYROX now, like all sorts of things. Um, and we have it there and I just, I love it.
It's a community that has. Given me so much and I would be remiss not to. How, uh, how old is it? 2011. Oh wow. Yeah. So it's in the Stutz? No, so it started on Delaware, the gym Cross. It was CrossFit NapTown, then I think. Oh yes, I remember that building. Yeah. So it was on Delaware and then we moved to what is now the pink butter building.
And then moved into the Stutz a couple years ago. Amazing. I love that. Myriad Fitness + Yoga, Myriad Fitness + Yoga. Yeah. Myriad Fitness + Yoga. Great one. Never had that one before. Yeah. I love when we get a new, I love when we need to get a new hidden jump. I mean, I feel like the food places are always easy.
I'm like, yes, of course Bodhi, but like, yeah. Right. I like, no, I like the interesting pulse. I'm always here for that. Alright, finally you get to share the love with, uh, another Hoosier, someone across, whether they're currently in our state or I've maybe moved away somewhere, but someone who's a Hoosier that, uh, that we need to keep on our radar that's doing big things.
Courtney Roberts my new boss. Yeah. Okay. So she, um, you know, she came to us or will come to us from Ivy Tech Foundation, but she. Before that was at Lilly and kind of impacted global health with Lilly Foundation. And then before that she worked for, um, a couple of administrations here. But she's just an energy that I am grateful that I get to interact with and she is very talented and very smart and she'll just be a really good time and I am excited to work with her at the foundation for at Riley Foundation and to see what we can do.
In our next iteration, what ri in some capacity has been around for 101 years. Mm-hmm. So here's to the next 99. I know. There we go. We'll see. We'll see what we can get. I love it. This was an incredible episode. Thank you. Uh, thank you Dr. Mustafa for coming on and sharing. I mean, the crazy work being done in fetal surgery like that is still wild to me.
That that's a thing. And the work being done like. You know, if, if the Riley Children's Foundation didn't exist, like maybe Dr. Mustafa wouldn't be here. Mm-hmm. So it's a great yin and yang that's working together too. Uh, elevate the, the experience for kids mm-hmm. That, that need ri here in the state of Indiana.
So I appreciate all the work that you're doing. Uh, if people want to connect with you, if they wanna get plugged into the foundation, they have a few million dollars sitting around and want to make an impact across the Hoosier State, how can they connect with you and the foundation? Yep. So rileykids.org is our website.
We are always answering emails. We are on all the. Except for TikTok. We're on all the socials at Riley Kids, so you can find us there and I am easily accessible with those avenues too. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. And we'll talk soon. Alright, thank you. Alright, that's a wrap on today's nonprofit Spotlight, and I hope you're as fired up as I am about the work being done by amazing leaders right here in Indiana.
Big thanks again to Elements Financial for sponsoring the series as a credit union. They're not-for-profit and built on the idea of empowering individuals to achieve financial success. That's why they've been empowering Hoosiers and folks around the globe for 95 years. They're based in Indy, but they serve members in all 50 states and more than 50 countries, and they're serious about giving back, teaching more than 1000 financial wellness classes every year, offering volunteer hours, and donate 1% of net profits to causes that matter.
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