Breaking Barriers:
Dedication to All Families

Dr. Leigh Ramos-Platt, MD, Medical Director of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ (CHLA) Certified Duchenne Care Center in the hospital’s Neurological Institute, dedicates her career to serving young patients with Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy. The entire CHLA neuromuscular team is dedicated to providing quality care for the 160+ Duchenne and Becker individuals regardless of their financial or social circumstances, language, or immigration status. Dr. Ramos-Platt states, “Our mission at CHLA is to create hope and build healthier futures and our patient population inspires us daily.”

Since its founding in 2012, the CHLA neuromuscular program reflects the hospital’s commitment to serving complex care patients. A diagnosis like Duchenne and Becker can be overwhelming in itself, without taking into consideration the social & emotional impact. “About one-quarter of our patients have migrated to the US for a better life for their family and a total of about one-third of the patients seen speak a language other than English,” says Dr. Ramos-Platt. In addition to managing their child’s complex care, many patient families are also managing a new country and language. To help with this, interpreters are provided as needed, with an in-person Spanish interpreter devoted to the twice-monthly multidisciplinary Duchenne/Becker clinics. 

“My experiences with our individual patients led me on a path to this specialty,” Dr. Ramos-Platt says. “They teach us about hope, strength, resilience, and grit from their varied backgrounds and personal journeys of how they came to our care. This population endures a lot of challenges. They motivate our team to see the whole child and community and not just the parts of the disorders we are ‘responsible’ for.”

PPMD is proud to have Dr. Ramos-Platt & Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as part of our Certified Duchenne Care Center network.  The passion this team has for serving individuals, living with Duchenne and Becker shows that barriers can be broken and quality care can be received, no matter your life circumstances. To learn more about the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles clinic, please visit our website or email careteam@parentprojectmd.org.