The Declan Donoghue Foundation

After Declan's death, we were plagued by the fact that Declan's diagnosis could have been determined prior to his death if more of the specialists working with us worked together to solve this mystery. In January 2011, four months after Declan passed away, we met with the management of Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and Brenners Children's hospital and showed them how through communication Declan's diagnosis might not have been such a mystery. We asked them to create a program that assigned a "medical quarterback" to children with complex or unresolved medical issues to help facilitate a multi-disciplined conference to work through diagnosis and plan for next steps. The hospital responded with great efforts and the Declan Donoghue Collaborative Care Program has been in place since 2011, helping many families find answers not previously offered with the help of multiple specialists coming together for one goal, finding an answer for kids with complex, unresolved medical issues.

 

In February 2013, Nicole and Rich were interviewed to talk about their medical treatment experience with Declan at Brenners Children's Hospital. They were participating in Wake Forest's Baptist Hospital's Safety initiative. Declan's story was featured as an example of how safety was not the priority and how our loss of Declan is helping the entire hospital look at safety in a different way.  Safety Video    

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In April 2017, Nicole, Declan's mom, alongside the Brenners Collaborative Care Team were published in the American Associations of Pediatrics Journal Pediatrics. The Declan Donoghue Collaborative Care Program is being seen as an enhanced model of collaborative care and recognized for our results since 2011. Please find a link to the article and a review of our program and how it has helped children obtain diagnosis. For every child diagnosed, Declan is remembered.