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Children's Hospital Makes Families And Patients Feel At Home

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Two-year-old CJ Jeter is in a hurry. He knows he's on his way to the playroom.

CJ and his mom, Christina Amman, travel from their home in Erie for chemotherapy treatments at Children's Hospital, as he fights a form of leukemia. They stay there together a month at a time.

"I'm grateful that they did send us here," Christina says. "We're getting taken great care of. I'm happy that we didn't have other choices because Pittsburgh has been taking great care of us."

Dr. J. Anthony Graves is one of many who have a hand in CJ's treatment.

"The good so far outweighs the bad," the doctor says. "First of all, we're lucky enough that we cure the vast majority of the patients that we see. There's still some diseases for which we'e not so lucky. But the resiliency that the families show, the courage that the children show, there's just so many things about which to be encouraged and uplifted, that it's easy to keep going."

CJ's mother says it's more than just medicine.

"They make you feel as much at home as possible," she said. "They have activities almost every day to keep your mind off things."

CJ needs a bone marrow transplant, and the hospital has found three possible donors. But if that doesn't work out, the family will go to plan B: a bone marrow drive back home in Erie.

For the time being, Children's Hospital is home.

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