The teen lounge was a welcome refuge where the Silverman family sometimes covered the pool table with a sheet to share a meal with some semblance of normalcy. A social worker from the hospital's cancer center went to Sarah's school, Arizona School for the Arts, and to her United Synagogue Youth group at Beth El Congregation to explain the course of the disease and treatment and tell Sarah's friends what they might expect. Taking into account the whole child is essential to the PCH mission. And that means understanding that each child is different and at each stage of development has very specific needs. It impacts the protocols, the course of treatment.
Singer says working at a children's hospital allows an exclusive focus on children.
There is an active commitment to ongoing research. She mentions that the cure rate for a child with leukemia has gone from 10 percent to over 70 percent in the past 25 years. The cure rate for Ewing's sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, has also increased to 70 percent. One of Singer's patients, Asher Sirkin, has had two bouts with the disease over the past five years. Now 19, Sirkin graduated two weeks ago from Cortez High School and will attend the University of Arizona in the fall.