Chester's pediatric asthma rate is four times higher than the national average; their infant mortality rate is five times higher.

"We don't have the healthcare infrastructure to sustain the healthcare needs of the community," Motley said.

"As much as we can get healthcare providers to come to this area to provide free services, that is, at this point, our only chance for survival," said Kristin Ball Motley, the health commissioner for the city of Chester.

Chester is a city with stark health disparities.

The "Back to School Bash,” scheduled for today from 10 to 2 at 151 W. Fifth Street in Chester, will provide free physical exams, vaccinations, & lead testing to children.

The hope is that families will meet providers who they can continue to see for follow-up care.

A 4-year-old girl with autism, for example, went without speech or physical therapy services for months after Crozer’s pediatrics practice closed in 2024. It took her almost a year to find a new doctor. Others had to stop ADHD medication, or missed important blood work.

Joyce slept beside him on a chair for four days. On the last day, she woke to him squeezing her hand. He smiled at her and then shut his eyes.

On Jan. 17, Bladen died at age 78.

Joyce wants her husband to be remembered for being a jokester who could get along with anyone.

When Bladen finished treatment last August, doctors were hopeful.

Two months later, he went to Jefferson for a PET scan to see if he was in remission. His original lump was gone, but the cancer had spread all over.

“It just ravaged his whole body,” Joyce, his wife, said.

“This virus is the closest cousin of HIV,” said Pooja Jain, an HTLV-1 researcher at Drexel, noting that both spread through body fluids and infect a type of white blood cell known as T cells.

However, unlike HIV, which destroys T cells, HTLV-1 causes them to proliferate.

US children aged 1-19 were 80% more likely to die than children in other high-income countries.

Firearm-related injuries were the leading cause of death, with children in the U.S. facing a 15 times higher chance of dying by a firearm than their counterparts in similar countries.

Hayes recalled caring for a “perfectly healthy” 4-month-old child who, in the span of three days, went from laughing, playing, and being fed at home to being in an intensive care unit with a tube down their throat.

“We always wished that we had some sort of treatment to help prevent this."

The drug is what’s called a monoclonal antibody.

You can think of antibodies as police officers patrolling our body for a specific criminal. Once that target is identified, the antibody “handcuffs” the perp by binding to it. This particular antibody targets RSV.

“In order to see the full benefit of this, we really need all of these young infants to consistently receive the treatment. And unfortunately, we haven’t gotten the numbers there yet,” said Ericka Hayes, CHOP's senior medical director of infection prevention and control