University of Arizona Health Sciences
Patient Storytelling Campaign
MY ROLE
Producing · Writing · Directing · Editing · Editorial Strategy
Jamee Emens remembers the sleepless nights. Her son Jack would struggle to breathe and she would sit with him in a steam-filled bathroom hoping it might help. Every few hours came another nebulizer treatment. When those stopped working, they would head back to the emergency room.
For eight years, that cycle repeated itself.
Jack is one of Jamee and Chris Emens’ triplets. His sisters, Cameron and Peyton, were dealing with medical problems of their own. Cameron’s symptoms began when she was just 18 months old, when one of her eyes began to droop. Over the years, the three children would be diagnosed with a remarkable collection of chronic conditions, including myasthenia gravis, Type 1 diabetes, vitiligo, Hashimoto’s disease and eosinophilic esophagitis.
For Jack, an important answer finally came after the family met Dr. Fayez Ghishan at the University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center. He suspected eosinophilic esophagitis, an inflammatory condition affecting the esophagus. An endoscopy confirmed it, and changes to Jack’s diet finally ended the recurring respiratory crises that had shaped so much of his childhood.
Today, the triplets are young adults. Their experience has given the Emens family an unusually personal understanding of why research into autoimmune disease matters. Advances in whole-genome sequencing are giving researchers new ways to look for genetic variants associated with disease, with the hope of helping families find answers earlier and informing more personalized treatment.
THE PROJECT
We developed the Emens family story as an integrated content package that included the short film, editorial article and social media clips. The story went on to have a life beyond our own channels, shared through the Steele Children’s Research Center and used on digital kiosks and at events.
For Jamee, there is comfort in knowing that what her family went through may someday make the path easier for another family.