Corey Chambers SoCal Home Real Estate Newsletter September 2020

Corey Chambers SoCal Home Newsletter
Corey Chambers SoCal Home Newsletter September 2020

The SoCal Home  —  More Than Real Estate News

Labor Day is All Wrong!

I always thought the powers that be in the U.S. got the name wrong – Labor Day. Since it’s a Holiday intended to be just that, a Holiday – I would think the proper name would be Relax Day or Lazy Day or Off Day or Sleep-in Day, something other than Labor Day. Unfortunately, most celebrate Labor Day by doing just that – Laboring. Government employees and Bank’s typically close up shop on Labor Day, but according to recent studies the majority of Americans are laboring on Labor Day. So to celebrate the month of September and the affection for Laboring, I have a special announcement to make: I will be Laboring, but for a very special reason. Right now, many would-be homeowners and home sellers are caught in a catch 22. They are nervous about moving or the opposite, desperate to make a move. This is why we have developed a special program for those you know that are considering a move.

Just like the weather seasons come and seasons go, so do the seasons of life. I’m sure you have noticed, as I have, the older I get the faster the seasons move by. These “seasons of life” go by so fast, my hope is that you enjoy each one or at least grow from each one. Yes. Some of life’s seasons will be HOT and others will be COLD, some high and some low. The lows we want to move by quickly, the highs we want to stay in forever sometimes. #coreychambers

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This is where you come in…

For the month of September, if you or anyone you know is considering making a move to a new home, we will Guarantee a minimum $10,000 Savings for every $200,000 in sales price on the home purchase or I will pay the difference*.  You read it correctly – my labor saves you and those you know considering making a move a nice chunk of change. The reason why I can make such a special offer is simply because our long track record of selling homes and specialized knowledge allows us to negotiate the best deal on the best home for our best clients.  #realestate #newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE:  VOL 6, ISSUE 9  SEPTEMBER 2020

  •  HAPPY LABOR DAY
  •  How Your Referrals Help Kids
  • And Much More   #realestate #newsletter

Even if YOU are not moving, you can still benefit

Each month in my special SoCal Home Newsletter, I ask “Who do you know that may be considering a move?”

This is because YOUR referrals help the kids…

Anyone you know considering making a move, wanting to buy or sell their home, please refer them to me without hesitation. They will receive the guarantee I detailed above and you can rest assured your referrals will help the kids at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

With a guarantee like this, you, your friends, neighbors, work associates and family members who may be considering a move can now do so and avoid the uncertainties in the marketplace.

If you missed last month’s SoCal Home Newsletter, we are on a mission to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Helping Hands Fund, so we are donating a good portion of our income from home sales to them. As you know Children’s does a tremendous job of helping kids fight through and survive nasty life-threatening diseases like Cancers, Leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: stuff that many times rob the life right out of young people.

Kids under their care are 300% more likely to enter into remission IF they can get into the recovery center. BUT, the Recovery Center survives on Sponsorships and Donations. So YOUR REFERRALS REALLY DO HELP THE KIDS…

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?

Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, but we donate a substantial portion of our income on every home sale to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Helping Hands Fund.

Your Referrals Really Do Help the Kids…

I want to make it easy to refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move.

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to who you know considering a move.

Over the last two decades of helping thousands of families sell their home and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals, those you know considering a move, that we help – you can rest assured that not only will they get the award-winning service we are known for and the guarantee to back it up, but that a solid portion of the income we receive from the transaction will go toward a very worthy cause.

It’s easy to refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move. Simply go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or, of course, you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910.

I hope you and your family are well and this Independence Day brings you much joy and happiness. With all my appreciation.

Corey

Supporting_CHLA_logo

Corey Chambers, Broker Associate, Realty Source Inc
213-880-9910

P.S. We love honoring our past clients like you. Read all about that at www.ReferralsHelpKids.com

Go Serve Big in SoCal

It’s easy to refer those you know considering buying or selling a home. You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info on line or forward the link to who you know considering a move. You can also call me direct or pass my number on: 213-880-9910.

Why I Support Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

I grew up right here in Los Angeles. Born right nearby at St. Francis Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles area, California native, I take pride in supporting in any way that I can the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares similar commitments to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.

Sincerely,

213-880-9910

Below is the story of a patient who’s life was turned around by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  Take a brief moment to consider what it must have been like to walk a mile in her shoes.

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CHLA’s Clubfoot Clinic Takes Shape

“The goal … is to get a foot that’s flat, that’s flexible, and you’re able to wear normal shoes without any pain.”

By Jeff Weinstock.  Photos and story courtesy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Two-year-old Merci, the first patient to be treated at CHLA’s clubfoot clinic

Those of you who like the symmetry of things will enjoy hearing that one of the founders of the Clubfoot Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was born with the disorder, a birth defect that causes the foot to twist inward and go stiff.

“Like this,” Melissa Bent, MD, says, calling up an image on her laptop that shows the soles of a patient’s little feet turned to such a degree that they’re facing each other.

But as for her career path, Dr. Bent would say her own experience with clubfoot is more coincidental than causal. Destiny didn’t intervene. A mid-20th-century Spanish physician did.

While undertaking a year-long fellowship in clubfoot management, Dr. Bent was introduced to the Ponseti method, a strategy for treating the condition that has transformed outcomes for clubfoot patients. She is only two degrees of separation from the method’s namesake, orthopedist Ignacio Ponseti, who developed the technique in the 1950s years after leaving his native Spain and arriving at the University of Iowa. That same institution is where Dr. Bent completed a second fellowship under Jose Morcuende, MD, who took over Ponseti’s practice after the doctor passed away a decade ago.

Boiled down, the Ponseti method is a meticulous sequence of stretching, manipulating, casting and bracing begun a couple of weeks after birth. Stretching loosens and elongates the stiffened, abnormally short ligaments in the foot that have created the deformity; recasting the foot each week holds the progress made in place; and braces make it so that, once flattened out, the feet don’t revert to their original shape.

CHLA’s Clubfoot Clinic Takes Shape | Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Merci had such severe clubfeet, they looked like flippers, her mother says.

In between the casting and bracing phases, most patients require an Achilles tenotomy, a procedure wherein the Achilles tendon, thick and resistant to manipulation, is cut to allow it to regrow to a longer length and provide the ankle with the proper range of motion.

If the course of stretching and casting doesn’t straighten the foot, there are surgical routes to try, but according to Dr. Bent, the Ponseti method has 95% success at achieving a correction.

“We always caution that clubfoot is not a normal foot, so you can’t say the foot is now normal,” she says. “But the goal, as Dr. Ponseti stated, is to get a foot that’s flat, that’s flexible, and you’re able to wear normal shoes without any pain.”

A unique partnership

Born in Jamaica, Dr. Bent didn’t have the benefit of receiving the Ponseti method; it hadn’t yet become the prevailing standard of care. Prior to Ponseti, many doctors would perform major surgeries on a clubfoot and leave the baby with another deformity, or as in Dr. Bent’s case, an overcorrected foot. She has since had multiple procedures to try to address it.

“It is straight, but stiff,” she says. “That’s why it’s painful. I’m active, but I don’t do a lot of running because I physically can’t.”

Dr. Bent’s partner in clubfoot treatment is CHLA orthopaedic surgeon Rachel Goldstein, MD, who also has had specialized clubfoot training. Dr. Bent does the casting and bracing, while Dr. Goldstein performs the heel-cord surgery and any other procedure that might be necessary.

CHLA’s Clubfoot Clinic Takes Shape | Children's Hospital Los Angeles

The Ponseti method includes a period of weekly castings to keep the foot from turning back inward.

“It’s a unique partnership,” Dr. Bent says. “Not many clinics in the country have both surgical and nonsurgical aspects for managing care of clubfoot.”

Over the 2 ½ years since they began the clinic, Dr. Bent estimates the two have seen about 30 to 40 clubfoot babies. It was their expertise in the Ponseti method that brought them their very first patient, a newborn named Merci (pronounced the French way).

Merci’s mother, Tanya, had become familiar with clubfeet through working for Clark Shoes, which during the time it manufactured kids’ shoes used to donate money to MiracleFeet, a charity that supports clubfoot clinics in poorer countries. Part of the funds went toward training health care practitioners in the Ponseti method.

When Merci was born in August 2017 with clubfeet, Tanya and her husband, Greg, read up on the Ponseti method and found that CHLA applied it. That was the closer. “We said, ‘That’s where we’re going,’” Tanya says.

Once they met Dr. Bent and learned of her own personal history with the condition, they were delighted with their decision. “We were sold on her from the minute she walked in and shared with us her story.”

Bracing for the future

Merci, now 2, is on course for the optimal outcome, which would have her out of braces and finished with treatment at age 4 if the feet keep their corrected position.

With clubfoot care, however, there is one caution: the considerable potential for relapse—the foot turning back inward—because the bracing phase overlaps a time, ages 2-4, when a child’s foot is growing rapidly. If that happens, the process must be restarted with weekly foot manipulation and casting.

Tanya is determined to avoid any setbacks. The family has been diligent about adhering to the treatment plan, which now has Merci wearing her braces—or her “boots and bar,” as the family refers to the hardware—only in the evenings.

CHLA’s Clubfoot Clinic Takes Shape | Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Greg and Tanya (holding Merci) with their three kids

“Unless she is sick and she cannot have socks on because she has a fever or whatnot, she’s in her boots and bar every night,” Tanya says. “When she’s out of them at 4, we want everything done. I don’t want a 6-year-old back in the casting process.”

On the clubfoot spectrum, Merci’s case started out toward the extreme. “When we first brought her home,” Tanya says, “her feet tucked under her butt, kind of like a little frog. They didn’t even look normal. They almost looked like little flippers. It was really unusual. It was scary.”

With Dr. Bent’s weekly kneading of Merci’s feet to unlock her ligaments, the feet began to steadily straighten. “You could see the progress after every cast. It was like, holy moly! She struggled with crawling, she was delayed in her walking, but now that she’s hit those milestones, oh my gosh—she doesn’t just walk, she sprints everywhere. Does she run a little bit different? Yes.”

That’s a result of underdeveloped lower legs that are a lot thinner than her quads, a natural effect of the condition. Tanya says she’s considering gymnastics and physical therapy as remedies.

It’s uncommon for a relapse of clubfoot to occur after age 5, Dr. Bent says, but it can happen, so just to stay ahead of any regression, she will follow Merci until she is at least 8 to 10 years old.

But that’s what brought her here. She pursued orthopaedics, and in particular clubfoot care, because she wanted to witness the results of her work and to see its long-term impact. She has her own phrase for the opportunity to genuinely sculpt a child a better future.

“You get to really see with your hands,’” she says, “and use your hands to make a difference in a very young kid’s life.”


My Child Has What?

Clubfoot, at a glance

What is it? A congenital birth defect in which abnormally short, tight ligaments surrounding the ankle cause a baby’s foot to turn inward. It can strike one foot or both.

What’s the incidence? 1 in 1,000 births in the U.S.

What causes it? Unknown. It runs in families, but no clubfoot gene has been identified. The disorder can exist alone in an otherwise healthy baby or can be one of a series of issues connected to a neuromuscular condition.

How is it treated? The most successful, widespread treatment is the Ponseti method, consisting of a series of stretching, casting, Achilles tenotomy, and braces.

What’s the prognosis? In better than 9 of 10 cases, the Ponseti method has a successful outcome, defined as a flat, straight and flexible foot that causes no pain. If untreated, the foot will remain deformed and walking will be severely impaired.

Famous athletes born with clubfoot: Freddy Sanchez, former professional baseball player; gold medal-winning figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi; retired soccer superstar Mia Hamm; NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman

How you can help

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move:  www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey 213-880-9910

Article and photos courtesy Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

CHLA’s Clubfoot Clinic Takes Shape | Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog and LAcondoInfo.com with information provided by Corey Chambers, Realty Source Inc, BRE#01889449 We are not associated with the homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact (213) 880-9910 or visit LAcondoInfo.com  Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker

* Corey and buyer / seller must agree on price and time of possession.