Regina Weather: A Regina Girl’s Hospital Journey and Her Role as Champion Child
Ivy Brodner was a five-year-old Regina girl who at one point “completely lost her mobility and was only able to move her eyes back and forth, ” her mother, Shandra Brodner, said. The word regina weather appears here as a local identifier tied to a story that follows Ivy from fevers and pain to emergency procedures and, now, to being named the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation Champion Child for 2026.
Regina Weather: What happened to Ivy Brodner?
Ivy’s illness began with on-and-off fevers that lasted a full year. “The symptoms after the fevers were pain episodes. I was working, and I got a call from her dad saying she was in quite a bit of pain, not able to move very much, was just in her bed, ” Shandra said. The next day, during a gymnastics class, Ivy screamed; her teacher thought she had broken something and urged the family to seek care.
At the Pasqua Hospital, caregivers initially thought Ivy’s trouble walking was a joint problem and she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. “We’d gone home and it just progressively got worse, ” Shandra said. She described Ivy’s arms and leg muscles as becoming so tight “it almost felt like a tennis ball. They were all kind of bunched up. “
How did hospitals and tests shape the diagnosis?
The family went to the General Hospital for further testing and a treatment of IV fluids. Bloodwork showed an enzyme level called CK that rose to “upwards of 15, 000, ” compared with a normal range Shandra noted as 60 to 160. Because Ivy could not keep a peripheral IV, she was taken for an emergency central line placement so she could receive fluids near her heart. That effort was complicated by effects the illness had on her kidneys.
Initial diagnostic labels shifted before a correct diagnosis. Ivy was at one point diagnosed with viral myositis, a condition with some similar features, but her condition continued to worsen over the course of a week while treatments tried in Regina did not resolve the problem. Ivy was then transferred to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon for further testing with a pediatric specialist.
When the family arrived in Saskatoon, Ivy’s mobility had vanished. “Every muscle in her body was quite inflamed, including her throat muscles to swallow. So, at that point, she also had to be tube fed for five months total, no anything by mouth, no water, no food, ” Shandra said. The tests eventually established juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease that inflames skin, muscles and blood vessels.
What this means for the family and for sick kids across the province
Ivy’s path — from fevers to severe muscle inflammation, emergency central line placement and prolonged tube feeding — has been painful and disruptive. The Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation has recognized Ivy by naming her Champion Child for 2026, a designation that brings visibility to sick children across the province and highlights the long, often complex journeys families face in search of diagnosis and care.
Shandra’s account puts human detail behind clinical facts: repeated fevers, escalating pain, tests that took place at multiple hospitals, and the kind of rapid deterioration that required intensive interventions. In her words the arc is clear: initial misdirection toward juvenile arthritis, a worsening course, a high CK level prompting emergency procedures, and ultimately specialized care in Saskatoon that identified the underlying autoimmune disease.
Throughout this account the phrase regina weather appears as a local label that bookmarks the community context of the family’s experience. The medical timeline and Ivy’s current role as a public face for hospitalized children return attention to how families in this city navigate illness, diagnostics and specialist care in other centres.
Back where the story began — in the described moment when Ivy could only move her eyes — the recognition as Champion Child reframes that scene. It does not erase the months of tubes, tests and uncertainty, but it places Ivy and her family at the centre of a wider provincial conversation about children’s health and the pathways families travel to get answers.
