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Caring comes first at Mary Bridge in Tacoma

They've been helping kids in the South Sound since 1955. Sponsored by Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.

TACOMA, Wash. — Six-year-old Ty is as quick as the cars he plays with.

"Right now he's playing flag football. He wants to play basketball. He has played baseball," said Brandy Jackson, Ty’s mother. "He wants to do tackle football next year."

But a few years ago, Ty's mother noticed something wasn't right.

"When he was about 18 months old, we started seeing a little bit of blood in his diapers. And for a good chunk of time, all of his tests were coming back normal."

Doctor Rohit Gupta is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. He's overseen Ty's treatment since he was first brought in.

"We attended to it and diagnosed him with this rare condition called very early onset IBD, that's a form of inflammatory bowel disease. And most folks know about this, in the form of Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's Disease," said Dr. Gupta. "It breaks my heart to see these kids go through this."

Extremely rare for his age, Ty's parents put their trust and their son's health in the hands of Mary Bridge's caring staff.

Credit: KING 5 Evening
Ty gets checked in for his treatment at Mary Bridge.

"His GI doctor, Dr. Gupta, has always — he just cares about him. You can just tell like, we’re not rushing through appointments," Brandy said. "Our nurses, we love them. The front desk girls, we call our girls. They know who he is when we come in for infusion to check in."

"We have all the specialties," Dr. Gupta said. "We have all the pediatric subspecialties, we communicate, we interact, we provide world-class care to all the kids in our Pacific Northwest."

Today, thanks to Mary Bridge, Ty's health is better than it's been for a long time.

"He's doing great. He's in clinical remission," Brandy said. "It makes me want to cry every time because they're just so good to us."

If you would like to support the work Mary Bridge Children's Hospital does, consider making a donation as part of Giving Tuesday.

Sponsored by Mary Bridge. KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.

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