2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 47
BY SENATOR PEACOCK
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To commend the Shreveport Shriners Hospital on the occasion of its one hundredth year
anniversary as the first Shriners Hospital in the world.
WHEREAS, in 2022, the Shreveport Shriners Hospital will celebrate its one
hundredth anniversary as the first Shriners Hospital in the world; and
WHEREAS, a myriad of events, activities, and promotions will be held throughout
the year celebrating this tremendous milestone; and
WHEREAS, in 1921, the Shriner fraternity made the momentous decision to create
a hospital designed for kids with orthopedic conditions; and
WHEREAS, at the time, polio was quickly becoming a national epidemic, and care
for children with congenital orthopedic conditions and injuries was lacking; and
WHEREAS, led by Shriner and Shreveport businessman James Rowland, Louisiana
Shriners made a proposal to bring the first hospital to Shreveport, having secured land,
funding, and a qualified orthopedic surgeon, which was approved at the national meeting of
hospital delegates in Georgia; and
WHEREAS, the Shreveport Shriners Hospital opened September 16, 1922, as the
first facility of an extraordinary pediatric healthcare effort; and
WHEREAS, although, much has changed in the world from technology, medical
breakthroughs, the polio vaccine, and other monumental transformations, the mission of
Shriners Children's has remained the same; and
WHEREAS, from their humble beginnings of treating the effects of polio, they now
provide specialized care for children with orthopedic conditions, cleft lips and palates, burns,
and spinal cord injuries in 21 locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico; and
WHEREAS, Shriners Shreveport has provided vital care to a global population of
more than one hundred thirty-five thousand, regardless of the families' ability to pay; and
WHEREAS, the system overall has treated more than one million four hundred
thousand children; and
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WHEREAS, every year Shriners Hospitals for Children selects two national patient
ambassadors to represent the healthcare system's patients; and
WHEREAS, one of Shreveport's patients was selected in 2016-2017 for this high
honor, Karolina Nogues; and
WHEREAS, Karolina Nogues of Slidell spent the year sharing her story of
perseverance in the face of adversity and how Shriners made a dramatic, life-changing
difference in her life; and
WHEREAS, Karolina was born in 2000 with a significant limb-length discrepancy
involving her left leg that required Karolina to wear a shoe lift that helped compensate for
the difference for the first five years of her life; and
WHEREAS, her family searched for a better solution after some physicians
suggested amputation and Shriners was the answer; and
WHEREAS, she began the painful, tedious lengthening treatment at age seven that
would take nine years and require multiple surgeries and the use of an external fixator that
lengthened her leg incrementally by seven inches; and
WHEREAS, now in her last year of undergraduate studies, she is majoring in
forensic psychology and applying to graduate schools and is a member of the Western
Equestrian Team at University of Central Florida; and
WHEREAS, she is just one of the many success stories of Shriners in Shreveport
which serves six states.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
commend the Shreveport Shriners Hospital on the occasion of its one hundredth anniversary
as the first Shriners Hospital in the world.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
Shreveport Shriners Hospital.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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