Braden Baker is one of those superheroes. Except Braden is not only in the pages of a comic book, he's also a compassionate kid raising money for people from all over the world who can’t afford hearing aids.

Because of his heroic deeds, 13-year-old Braden will appear on the latest episode of Marvel’s Hero Project, which debuts today on Disney+.

Marvel’s website describes the documentary as a show which “reveals the remarkable, positive changes several young, real-life heroes are making in their communities. These inspiring, driven, and engaging kids have dedicated their lives to selfless acts of bravery and kindness. These young heroes are finding creative solutions to tackle big issues such as protecting our environment, ending hunger, championing inclusivity, and many more. Now, Marvel celebrates them as true Super Heroes. They are welcoming them into Marvel’s Hero Project.”

In superhero form, he is known as "Battlin' Braden!" "Braden considers his hearing aids his superpower: when he puts them in, he feels his world comes alive. But when he learned that not everyone who is hearing impaired can afford hearing aids, he knew he had to help. Made possible through his tireless fundraising efforts, he travels, across the world delivering hearing devices, witnessing how lives are transformed when the sound finally comes on." You can read Battlin' Braden #1 for free here.

So how did Braden land a spot on this program? Well, like any good superhero, let’s look at his origin story.

During his newborn hearing screen, doctors found that Braden was born 65% deaf. He was sent to Cook Children’s shortly after to begin treatment for his hearing loss. It was there that Braden’s mom, Ashley Baker, discovered her own set of heroes.

“I get emotional talking about Cook Children’s. From the moment I walked in there, I knew everything was going to be OK,” Ashley said. “I knew because of the people there, who were taking care of Braden. To have somebody tell you who knows, ‘Everything is going to be fine’ meant the world to me. They told me it was best they found it at the newborn hearing screening. Because we are catching it now, we can help Braden.’”

Most babies are born with normal hearing but every year three out of every 1,000 babies are born with hearing loss. Hearing loss is most often discovered during a newborn hearing screening in the hospital shortly after birth.

Pediatric audiologists focus on diagnosing specific types of hearing loss in children. At Cook Children's, the audiologists work closely with the child, as well as family, speech pathologists, school personnel and physicians to enhance functional hearing to help your child learn and develop.

That suppoort allows Ashley to even laugh now looking back, thinking about the first pair of hearing aids placed on Braden at Cook Children’s. He simply “freaked out” the first time he was able to hear. But because of the staff taking care of her, Ashley says she remained calm.

“It never felt huge or overwhelming because of the staff,” Ashley said. “Cook Children’s held my hand from the beginning. I did everything they told me to do. That is the whole reason, Braden has done so well. Early intervention. They changed the entire trajectory of my kid’s life. They even had someone from Cook Children’s go to Country Day when he began kindergarten. They told the teachers how he hears, what he hears, and the importance of wearing an FM (a wireless assistive hearing device that enhances the use of a hearing aid). And we still go to Cook Children’s to this day.”

Braden’s trajectory changed again in June 2017 when his dog, Chewy, ate one of his hearing aids. Braden’s parents lectured their son on the importance of taking better care of his hearing aids and explained they could be quite expensive.

Braden took the message to heart and decided he wanted to help others who couldn’t be careless with their hearing aids or couldn’t afford them.

He asked himself a question based on his fandom of his favorite talk show host, “What would Ellen do?”

Braden decided to launch a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for people who can’t afford hearing aids. He advertised the campaign on his mom’s Facebook page.

He began to work with his local community, including Cook Children’s and the Fort Worth ISD. He also established a relationship with the Oticon Hearing Foundation, the company that makes his hearing aids.

Braden eventually connected with the Entheos Audiology group, “Hearing the Call,” which led to mission trips to Guatemala, Ecuador and Zambia, Africa. Ultimately, Braden helped reach more than 200 people who have received new hearing devices. Today, he has raised more than $107,000.

His question led to an answer and the chance to meet his inspiration. Braden appeared on the Ellen show in October of 2017. 

From there, Braden spoke at events all over, and his story has reached hundreds of thousands of people.

And that all led to a fateful phone call that invited Braden and his family to New York to meet the crew from Marvel. They talked to Braden and learned more about his incredible tale of helping others. They took his adventures and created a comic book.

When it comes to all of the exposure and amazing things he’s accomplished and been a part of, Braden is more Steve Rogers than Tony Stark.

“While being a Marvel Hero is pretty awesome, what I hope the attention does is highlight the work of audiologists,” Braden said. “A lot of doctors get attention for the great work they do, but the work of the audiologists are changing the way people hear and experience the world.”

Now, he will continue to spread his inspiring message as part of the new Marvel’s Hero project. The documentary followed Braden to stops throughout Fort Worth.

“This has been another amazing experience. It’s just cool for Fort Worth and this kid who came from Cook Children’s,” Ashley said. “But there’s no way we take all the credit. It’s all the wonderful people who have paved our journey thus far. Marvel indoctrinated him into the Marvel Hero universe. In the book, he’s in hero form. He’s in action, throwing hearing aids out to people. Braden is a kid who turned his disability into a huge ability. There’s no perfection in heroism, and that’s always kind of been Marvel’s point.”

*Credit to Disney+ for images from the episode and to Marvel for images from the comic.

I’d be hard pressed to compare waiting for a doctor’s appointment including an appointment with me to the anticipation of waiting in line for any Disney ride or show.

It happens that the question about Disney and healthcare actually crossed my mind in March. While checking in on Twitter, I came across an intriguing book mentioned by one of the folks whom I follow: @JohnNosta.

The skeptic in me wondered how the entertainment industry could have any relevance to health care. Fortunately, the curious skeptic in me decided to buy the book and learn more.

The author approaches healthcare from a business, non-physician perspective focused on serving patients and those who care for patients. I found some fresh perspectives that I think will help me going forward.

Here are three pearls that I got out of the book.

Pearl 1: A focus on loyalty and not satisfaction

Loyalty and trust are different from satisfaction. Loyalty is built on a consistent caring and engaged compassion. Loyalty is built in large part by creating a memorable event in a patient care experience.

Pearl 2: Courtesy is more important than efficiency

A commitment to courtesy both improves experience and can lead to opportunities for efficiency improvement.

A focus on the satisfaction and service for others in your institutional may improve responsiveness and lead to better sharing of resources.

Pearl 3: Create a climate of dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction with the status quo combined with the dream for what can be are key ingredients in growth and improvement. Even when all measures are near the top, there will always be room for improvement.Final Thoughts

I don’t believe it’s completely valid to compare the work done by me and others at Cook Children’s to work done in other service fields. Stakes and expectations are much higher - solving a problem, managing chronic illness, fixing a hurt - than getting a Starbucks order right or the thrill of a roller coaster ride.

Still we are all compared to real life experiences. Waiting in line is seldom fun. And the ride is sometimes not a ride the child or family would choose. We can still strive to make the experience as pleasant as possible.

About the author

Joel Steelman, M.D., is an endocrinologist at the Cook Children's Endocrine and Diabetes program, which treats infants, children and teens with conditions that are caused by or affect the hormonal balance of the body. We understand the importance of working together and that's how we approach the care of our children.

In the year 2000, measles were declared eliminated from the United States. This occurred because there was a 12-month period where no measles cases were contracted here, making the disease no longer native to the United States.

I hear this question often in my office and its logical based on the fact that measles was eliminated:

“We haven’t seen outbreaks of these diseases for years. Do we really need to continue vaccinating for them?”

The answer is yes and it's exactly because of what we've seen in the past two weeks. Measles are only a plane ride away. We live in a society with global mobility. People fly in and out of countries where measles continue to be a huge problem and then fly back to the United States. Measles are highly contagious via droplets from coughs and sneezes. In addition, people are contagious before they start to show symptoms. (Contrast that with another infectious disease we dealt with recently (Ebola) that requires blood or body fluid contact and is not contagious until there are significant symptoms.)

Continued vaccination programs protect our citizens when they travel abroad. It protects our citizens when travelers return to the United States. It helps to control outbreaks when they do occur.

Another common questions centers around the severity of these diseases.

I pulled this quote from an interview with The Today Show in Australia and Dr. Sherri Tenpenny:

“I don’t believe that measles, mumps, rubella or chicken pox are routinely fatal illnesses. If you ask any person over the age of 50…they had all those illnesses when they were children and growing up.”

There are so many false assumptions mixed in with this statement:

1. You cannot ask a person in their 50s that died from one of these diseases how serious it is.

2. Even if not fatal, the complications associated with these diseases can be very serious.

3. This completely discredits the suffering of any family member of someone who experienced complications from these diseases.

Just look at the stats. In the United States, prior to the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963:

• 3-4 million people had measles each year
• 400-500 died
• 48,000 were hospitalized
• 4000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling)

These complications don’t happen as much in the United States, but do continue to occur in areas where vaccination rates are not as high. There were 145,700 measles deaths worldwide last year. This is a 75-percent drop since 2000 due to efforts to make vaccinations available to children all over the world.

Continuing to vaccinate for measles is important because measles are serious and only a flight away ... and lately, even in our own backyard. 

This is part 2 of Dr. Smith’s series on measles. For more information about measles vaccination and herd immunity, click here.

About the author

Justin Smith, M.D., is a Cook Children's pediatrician in Lewisville . View more from The Doc Smitty at his Facebook page. He attended University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and did his pediatric training at Baylor College of Medicine. He joins Cook Children's after practicing in his hometown of Abilene for four years. He has a particular interest in development, behavior and care for children struggling with obesity. In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his 3 young children, exercising, reading and writing about parenting and pediatric health issues.