Rotary: Guest Speaker Beverly Hilstrom

Our Guest Speaker this week was Beverly Hilstrom.  She was here to talk about her new program for pain assessment in very young children, Amanda’s Rainbow.

Amanda was Beverly’s daughter.  At the age of two she was diagnosed with a brain stem tumor.  Amanda would speak of her pain in colors, green for the worst pain and pink for the least.  The color system remained constant, and Beverly wondered if other children could do the same thing.  If so, it would be a great aid for the professionals caring for these children.  Sure enough, each child had their own color system to identify their pain.  This also carried across to other childhood problems.

Now, children at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and Medical Center are given a drawing of a rainbow, and a box of 24 crayons, and encouraged to colour the rainbow according to the colours of their pain.  This empowers the children to be able to communicate, and leads to more accurate adjustment of pain medication.

Now there is a research program involving 250 children suffering from childhood arthritis.  It will last for one year, and lead to an electronics app that can be used universally.  The cost is $350,000, and Beverly is raising the funds to help this program continue.  Donations may be srnt to:  Janice Williams, BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, 938 W 28^th, Vancouver, BC V52 4H4.

Amanda died before her third birthday, but her memory lives on with Amanda’s Rainbow.