Sadie, 8, Atherton 

Sadie Rose is the kind of child who lights up a room—sweet, caring, and generous, with a little extra grit that makes her shine. “True to her name,” her mom Carrie says, “she is sweet, caring, and generous. Sadie also has thorns of a fighter. She’s tough, and she’s got spunk.” The youngest of two sisters, Sadie brings joy and laughter wherever she goes. 

In the fall of 2022, after a happy summer and a simple family outing, Sadie began experiencing sudden episodes of breathlessness. At first, they seemed minor. “I didn’t think much of it,” Carrie remembers. “I figured she was coming down with a cold.” But the episodes grew more frequent and more severe, leading to emergency room visits, 911 calls, and mounting fear. Doctors eventually discovered dangerously high pressure on the right side of Sadie’s heart, and soon after, an even more devastating diagnosis: pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD), a rare and aggressive lung condition with no known cure other than a transplant. 

After weeks in the hospital and a rapid decline in Sadie’s health, her family was referred to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. “Our journey to Stanford had begun,” Carrie says. From the moment they arrived, Sadie was surrounded by a team that felt, in Carrie’s words, “like two armies of angels collaborating to take the best care of our little girl.” The Stanford team immediately began an innovative treatment approach to stabilize Sadie and give her a fighting chance to reach transplant. 

For nearly a year, Sadie’s care teams worked tirelessly to hold that fragile bridge of stability—preparing her body, monitoring every change, and walking alongside her family every step of the way. But as time passed, it became harder to maintain. “She had lost the ability to even laugh without triggering trouble breathing,” Carrie shares. “It broke my heart.” 

Then, early one December morning, everything changed. “We were awoken with the best, most terrifying news of our lives,” Carrie recalls. “We had a match.” Sadie underwent a bilateral lung transplant—one of the most complex surgeries possible. “The feeling of overwhelm doesn’t begin to express the miracle of transplant,” Carrie says. “It was truly the beauty of the most meaningful ballet one could ever witness.” 

When Sadie finally began to wake after surgery, Carrie noticed movement in her hospital bed. “All I could see was her beautiful little face peeking over the side rail, with the tiniest hint of a Sadie smile. My baby was healing.” 

Today, Sadie is thriving. “She giggles and laughs all the time now,” Carrie says. Her joy is a living testament to what’s possible when expert care, groundbreaking medicine, and generous community support come together. 

This year we are honored to celebrate Sadie as a 2026 Summer Scamper Patient Hero, and to thank the donors who help make stories like hers possible. “Without you,” Carrie says, “we would not have our precious Sadie Rose.”