Good News Sunday: Elburn boy attends Super Bowl through Make-A-Wish Illinois

This is Good News Sunday, a compilation of some of the more upbeat and inspiring stories published recently by the Daily Herald:

His team may not have won the Lombardi Trophy, but Matthew Kinsella of Elburn still had a once-in-a-lifetime experience as he watched the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles at Super Bowl 57 in Arizona.

"I really wanted the Eagles [to win]," said Matthew, 11, a sixth grader at Kaneland Harter Middle School. "I wanted Jason Kelce to get a ring because I like him as a player."

Matthew, who has a rare genetic condition called tuberous sclerosis, loves football, especially the Chicago Bears. So when Make-A-Wish Illinois, a nonprofit organization that creates "life-changing wish experiences for children with critical illnesses," reached out to him to plan a wish, attending the Super Bowl was his first choice.

"I was super excited. I couldn't wait," Matthew said. "I was most excited about the game itself. I like football, and that was the main part of the wish. My friends were telling me how lucky I was, and they were texting me while I was there. Everyone was so nice, and I felt really special."

In addition to the game, participating families attended the NFL Honors ceremony on Feb. 9, where Matthew met several of his football heroes and collected signed footballs, jerseys and other memorabilia.

During the weekend, the Make-A-Wish families took a tour of the stadium, spent a day at Topgolf and Dave and Buster's, and enjoyed the "NFL Experience" in downtown Phoenix, where kids received custom-made footballs.

For the full story, click here.

Suburban doctor leading team to Turkey, Syria to help earthquake victims

Dr. Zaher Sahloul was on duty at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn on Feb. 6 when he learned a massive earthquake had struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

"To me, like many Syrian-Americans, it was very personal," the pulmonary and critical care specialist said of the quake and subsequent aftershocks that reportedly have killed more than 46,000 people, reduced hundreds of buildings to rubble and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Sahloul called his parents, who live about 200 miles from the Turkish border, to make sure they were OK. Then, he and fellow health care workers from MedGlobal began planning their response.

Established in 2017 and headquartered in Chicago Ridge, MedGlobal's mission is to eliminate health disparities worldwide. To that end, MedGlobal volunteers - including physicians, nurses, therapists and other health care professionals - provide humanitarian and health care support to people who've experienced natural disasters and epidemics, as well as those affected by conflict or war, industrial accidents and other man-made emergencies in regions where authority has broken down.

Sahloul, who is MedGlobal's co-founder and president, and nine other volunteers from Illinois, Texas and Michigan left Feb. 19 for Gaziantep, a Turkish city close to the earthquake's epicenter. In addition to expertise, the team is bringing medicine and medical supplies and equipment, including portable ultrasounds, to Syrian hospitals.

For the full story, click here.

Children's hospital patients learn they're going to spring training

Three Advocate Children's Hospital patients and their families were chosen for a three-day trip to Mesa, Arizona, to meet Chicago Cubs players and take in the club's first preseason ballgame.

On Feb. 15, 17-year-old Daniella Castro of Rolling Meadows, 15-year-old Gael Alvarado Muñoz of Des Plaines, and 11-year-old Gage Webber of Crown Point, Indiana, were surprised with the good news at Wrigley Field.

Gael said that until he got out of the family van and saw they were at Wrigley he had no idea what was going on.

"At the house they said there was a surprise, and I thought it would be a field trip or something," Gael said. "Nothing like this."

Gael said he mostly was looking forward to meeting Cubs players. He has a brain tumor and watched Cubs games while receiving chemotherapy, officials said.

Daniella developed a love of the Cubs while being treated for leukemia, and baseball-loving Gage has received several procedures for a congenital heart defect, officials said.

Officials for Advocate, which has children's hospitals in Park Ridge and Oak Lawn, said the trio and their families will be treated like VIPs during the all-expenses-paid trip. Among the planned activities is meeting with Cubs players and playing some Wiffle ball.

For the full story, click here.

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