Sen. Brown Meets with Cleveland Clinic Patient and Paralympian, Subject of Award-Winning Photograph

(Breanna Sprenger in the original award-winning photo)

(Sen. Brown and Breanna Sprenger, photo taken by Ken Cedeno, courtesy of Children’s Hospital Association)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) met with 12-year-old U.S. Paralympic swimmer Breanna Sprenger, an Avon resident and Cleveland Clinic patient born without legs and with one arm. Sprenger is the subject of an award-winning photograph currently being featured at the Children’s Hospital Association 2013 Photo Exhibit. The exhibit, sponsored by Brown, officially launched on Capitol Hill today before it will travel throughout the country during the next two years. Sprenger met with Brown to offer him a private tour of the exhibit. 

“Breanna is a remarkable young woman whose strength, character, and accomplishments should be an inspiration to us all,” Brown said. “With the help of the Cleveland Clinic and its tremendous care, Breanna has stayed positive and worked hard every day to overcome the obstacles she’s faced. I have no doubt that she will make her family, state, and country proud at the IPC World Swimming Championships in August.”

Sprenger is a member of the U.S. Paralympic World Swim Team, and will represent her country at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Swimming Championships this August in Montreal, Canada. The exhibit’s photograph, taken by Tom Merce of the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, is entitled “Athletic Aptitude” and features Sprenger receiving physical therapy as she trains for a swim meet.

Born without legs, one arm, and with several malformations of her internal organs, Sprenger has undergone 16 surgeries as a patient of the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. Despite these obstacles, Sprenger’s determination and the care she receives at the Cleveland Clinic have enabled her to participate in swimming, ballet, and cheerleading.

The Children’s Hospital Association 2013 Photo Exhibit features 49 award-winning photographs of children receiving care at children’s hospitals. Now in its 20th year, the biennial photo competition and exhibit draws more than 250 entries from photographers worldwide. The exhibit opened this week on Capitol Hill to help support Speak Now for Kids Family Advocacy Day, an annual event that facilitates children’s hospital patients and their families meeting with their Federal elected officials to urge Congress to consider children’s health care when making policy decisions.

Brown has long fought to ensure Ohio’s children receive the health care they need to grow up happy and healthy. In February, Brown introduced the National Pediatric Research Network Act, bipartisan legislation that would direct NIH to establish grants for coordinated networks of research, to more efficiently use scarce research dollars. The bill would ensure a better-coordinated National Institutes of Health (NIH) pediatric research investment that will produce a greater return on our investment and help the children of today—and tomorrow— overcome numerous devastating diseases and conditions. The bill seeks a reasonable proportion of pediatric research grants for rare diseases or conditions.

In April, Senator Brown led 25 Senators in urging Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human Services-Education to provide Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) funding support necessary to maintain the gains made under the program over the last decade in the FY14 budget. CHGME helps cover training and residents’ salaries for those who treat pediatric populations. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Brown authored the Children’s Hospitals Education and Research Act of 1998, which first proposed the CHGME program. In March 2011, Brown led 19 other senators in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) urging him to preserve the funding. Brown is also the author of the Creating Hope Act, which works to spur private-sector innovation aimed at treating rare and neglected pediatric diseases.

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