Brenda Sulock has come to know Children's Hospital of Wisconsin inside and out over the past 20 years.
It was more than 20 years ago when she began caring for foster children, and over that span she has taken in more than 275 children, four of whom she nows calls her own.
Most of her foster children had several medical problems that required hospitalization.
"I've lived here (at Children's)," Sulock said, adding that at one time she had two foster children hospitalized, each on different floors.
Sulock's 9-year-old foster girl was born 17 weeks early and has endured 11 surgeries.
It is parents like Sulock who played a large role in what is now seen in the new west wing at Children's Hospital.
The new 425,000-square-foot wing, which opens Monday, March 30, will add 58 beds to the hospital. The pediatric intensive care unit will consist of two 24-bed units, and a larger Herma Heart Center to provide additional care to children with congenital and other cardiac issues.
Each floor will also have private rooms for each of the patients.
"You don't realize as a person living in Wauwatosa how many kids come here," Sulock said. "You don't realize the scale of issues, how many people are coming to the hospital for things."
Providing suggestions
Sulock was part of the Family Advisory Committee that provided feedback on the construction of the new wing.
"They provide these out-of-the-box ideas," said Mary Jean Green, co-chair of the committee.
The ideas may be as little as the inclusion of a rocking chair, but to parents who sit in the hospital for days, it makes a big difference.
Along a tour of the new wing, Sulock sits in a rocking chair in a parents nook inside one of the hospital rooms.
"I spent enough time here I can tell you what furniture works and what doesn't," she said as she looked out a window. "I sat here for hours in a chair rocking kids. If you weren't in a comfortable chair, it was horrible."
Sulock said it's the simple things that count.
"Just having a spot for your toothbrush" means a lot, she said, as she looked at a shelf in a bathroom in one of the new patients rooms. "I am quite excited over these changes."
More than 50 family members were involved in the new wing's planning process, giving suggestions and testing out all the furniture that would be used in the rooms.
Green said at least 95 percent of the families' suggestions were included in the design.
"Families were involved from the beginning of the project through the whole process," Sulock said.
A welcoming environment
Some of those suggestions from families included a separate area for parents in their child's room that includes their own TV and an area for a pull-out bed.
"Families said 'We are going to be here, could you make it a more welcoming, colorful environment?' " Green said.
Sulock joined the Family Advisory Committee three years ago because she thought it could help make things better in a place that she has spent "quite a lot of time at."
While Sulock's foster career has come to a halt - she's focusing on raising her four adopted children - she continues to spend time at the hospital as a welcome ambassador.
"I have had both sides here," she said. "I think it helps to empathize with parents," she said of having her multiple experiences at the hospital.
Now she hopes that spending nights in the hospital are over for her.
"Now I hope all my kids are done with surgeries," she said. "I am hoping we can just go check it out to visit and not to stay."
Lori Weiss can be reached at (262) 446-6645.
WEST TOWER BY THE NUMBERS
12
stories tall
4,550
gallons of paint used
900
gallon fish tank awaits children in the lobby
294
beds in the hospital when the new tower opens
25
companies constructed the tower
4
foot-wide sidewalk stretching from Milwaukee to Sheboygan could be built from the concrete used
TIME LINE
1894 - Children's Hospital is founded by seven women who saw the need to establish a hospital for children, especially those from poor immigrant families
1894 - Children's Free Hospital, as it was known then, opens in a small rented home at 214 Brady St.; nurses and volunteers staffed the first hospital; they averaged 15 cases per day at a cost of 61 cents per case
1899 - the hospital moves to 100 Farwell Ave.
Before1923 - the hospital moves several times before moving to Wisconsin Avenue
1923 - Children's Hospital opens on 17th Street and Wisconsin Avenue
1926 - the hospital begins caring for infants
1952 - the hospital allows daily visits
1970s - the demand for services, combined with outdated facilities, once again brings the need for a new facility
1981 - the hospital board votes to build the new Children's Hospital in the Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex
1985 - the hospital becomes known as Children's Hospital of Wisconsin
1988 - its current facility opens
2006 - the board of directors approves a plan to expand its facilities
2009 - the new 425,000 square-foot west wing opens
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