About the Author — Kurt Newman, MD, is president and CEO of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., widely recognized as one of the nation’s best pediatric hospitals. Dr. Newman has been a surgeon at Children’s National for over thirty years and is a professor of surgery and pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. He helped create the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, dedicated to making children’s surgery pain free and less invasive. A strong advocate for the expansion of mental health treatment access for kids, he is actively involved in improving pediatric health nationally through his work on the boards of the Children’s Hospital Association and Safe Kids Worldwide. He and his wife Alison are the parents of two college age sons and live in Bethesda, Maryland.

About the Book — Anyone who has seen a child recover from a wound or a broken bone knows that kids are made to heal. Their bodies are more resilient, more adaptive, and far more able to withstand acute stress than adults’. And yet children are often treated as an afterthought by the medical establishment and shunted off to doctors who specialize in caring for adults. Will an anesthesiologist accustomed to treating older patients know how best to handle a toddler going under for the first time? If your soccer-playing daughter suffers a concussion, should you take her to the nearest ER—or drive farther to seek out doctors who specialize in treating kids? 
 
In this inspiring memoir, Dr. Kurt Newman draws from his long experience as a pediatric surgeon working at one of our nation’s top children’s hospitals to make the case that children are more than miniature adults. Through the story of his own career and of the brave kids he has treated over the years—and their equally brave and tenacious parents—he reveals the revolution that is taking place in pediatric medicine. 

When he decided to become a pediatric surgeon, the field was in its infancy, struggling for esteem. Now, nearly forty years later, it is at the forefront of exhilarating new discoveries in everything from cancer research to mental health care. But few parents know how to access the best care for their children. Far too many find themselves frustrated and afraid. 
 
Dr. Newman wrote this book to help guide parents—not just of sick kids but of all kids —and to share his knowledge of what children need to thrive. A deeply human story with a spectacular cast of young heroes and heroines, Healing Children will convince you that we still have a lot to learn from our kids.