How Donors Make a Difference at Spaulding

Support like yours helps Spaulding continue its fine work. Our patients and programs could not thrive without your generosity.

The following is one story of how donors have made a difference in the lives of others. There are many, many others.

The Maynard Family's Story

This is a story of why Todd and Charlotte Maynard decided to give to Spaulding. One summer evening in 2008, the Maynards' 2½-year-old son, Charlie, was in bed when he heard a fire engine roar down their street. Trying to see the truck, Charlie got out of bed, wiggled behind a bureau, pushed against a screen, and fell almost 20 feet onto the pavement, landing on his head.

Charlie's injuries were very serious. The fall left him with multiple skull fractures, blood in his lungs, a brain injury and a damaged eye. His doctors feared he would not survive – and that if he did, he might not regain the ability to walk or see normally. The left frontal lobe of Charlie's brain was badly damaged.

After Charlie's transfer to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlotte and Todd resolved that if Charlie got better, they would find a way to "give back" to Spaulding. Now, they are keeping their promise.

In the hospital, the Maynards explored every possible avenue of treatment for Charlie, including integrative medical approaches. Spaulding offers such approaches as therapeutic massage, acupuncture and Reiki with great success in our outpatient centers, but because of the tight reimbursement rates for inpatients, has not had funding available to offer these approaches to inpatients like Charlie. So Charlotte and Todd brought practitioners to Charlie's bedside to treat him.

In addition to the rehabilitation plan created for Charlie by Spaulding's professional team of clinicians, his parents arranged for him to receive acupuncture, herbal medicine, Reiki and cranio-sacreal therapy. They played classical music as he slept and hung artwork around his bed. They took him outside as often as possible and frequently the family dog would come to visit him. And they asked for and were grateful to receive prayers and positive energy.

That Charlie survived the fall at all was amazing. But Charlie didn't just survive; he thrived. Many of his doctors said his recovery was truly a miracle. At age four he was playing soccer, skiing and easily counting to 50!

Now that Charlie's recovery is assured, it is time to find a way to bring the integrative medical therapies that helped Charlie to the bedside of all of Spaulding's patients as part of our hospital's toolkit of rehabilitation techniques. The Maynards have made a generous financial commitment to bring in some of the area’s top practitioners in integrative medicine modalities as well as train Spaulding clinicians in acupuncture, massage, and other approaches. In honor of their generosity, Spaulding created the Maynard Family Fund for the Integrative Medicine Project at Spaulding.

Empowering Spaulding clinicians with the techniques of integrative medicine gives them even more ways to relieve pain, reduce swelling, restore muscle strength and promote healing. It means that all injured patients who come through our doors will have access to the same multidisciplinary care that helped Charlie Maynard return to full strength.

If you would like to support Spaulding’s efforts in this area or in other ways, please click here.