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A Lurie Children's Legacy: Meet the Wydras

July 10, 2025
Compassionate care and commitment to Lurie Children's runs in the family for the Wydras, who have built thier legacy on Chicago Avenue, and previously at Children's Memorial, over the last four decades. Parents Sandy and Al, a nurse on the Transport Team and a building automation specialist, met years ago while working odd hours at the former Children’s Memorial. The colleagues grew into friends and, with time, “Al the pal” became Sandy’s partner for life. The Wydras later welcomed daughters Lauren and Jessica who grew up seeing what a career in the medical field could look like and decided to pursue it themselves.
 
 
Today, the girls are both nurses working in the Emergency Department and on the Resource team, respectively, and sometimes see their family member’s notes while charting or hear dad’s voice through the pagers: both warm reminders that they really are all in this together.
 
"When you have those hard days you can go home, I can call my mom, I can call my sister, I can call my dad, and I know that they understand truly what it’s like," said Jessica.
 
Lurie Children's is so grateful to the Wydras for their years of dedication to pediatric care in Chicago.
 
To watch their full story on WGN News, click here. 

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