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Top: Dan, Jessica, Liam and
Meadow Roomberg
Right: Mila Gray Roomberg
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
T here are 20-25 pediatric conditions that can predispose a
young child to high blood pressure. When a kid with one of
them comes into a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia location,
an alert goes off in the network’s digital chart.

It says, essentially, that “this child is at high risk for hypertension,”
said Dr. Rachel Hachen of CHOP’s Division of General Pediatrics.

Given the risk, Hachen continued, “This is what you need to do: Get
the child’s blood pressure.”
This only happened with 2% of high-risk children under 3 before
Jessica and Dan Roomberg, a Jewish couple from suburban
Philadelphia, helped convince CHOP leaders that it needed to happen
more often.

It was the 2019 death of their 17-month-old daughter, Mila Gray
Roomberg, that spurred them to action. Mila died from a rare vascu-
lar manifestation of a genetic disorder, Neurofi bromatosis Type 1.

Months later, her parents started the Magical Mila Foundation, which
has raised more than $400,000 for equipment, tests and educational
10 MAY 4, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
materials that have helped CHOP take
the blood pressure of high-risk children.

CHOP now goes through its testing
process with about 40% of the high-risk
children in its network.

“It was because of the Roombergs
that our eyes were opened,” Hachen
said. Jessica Roomberg, now 35, and Dan
Roomberg, 37, could barely open their
eyes in the weeks after Mila’s passing.

“We went from having the greatest
17 months of our life, with an amazing
little girl. Mila was super special. She
was so happy and joyous and wonder-
ful and beautiful and strong,” Jessica
Roomberg said. “Every day revolved
around her schedule, her needs, her
wants.” The Congregation Or Ami members
felt like they had to fi nd a way to
keep parenting Mila. They also needed
something to occupy their minds.

The Magical Mila Foundation was
born. Three weeks later, they met
with the CHOP doctors who had
cared for their daughter. Jessica
Roomberg explained how,
during Mila’s medical care, it was
hard to get a doctor or nurse
to take her blood pressure. The
American Academy of Pediatrics
did not require the test for children
under 3 unless they were high-risk and,
even though Mila was, “It either wasn’t
getting done or when it was, it wasn’t
taken correctly,” the mother said. It would
be done on her leg, when the only way
to get it for a child would be on her right
arm. Or they would squeeze too tightly,
and Mila would scream, leading to an
inaccurate reading.

Mila’s blood pressure was not taken
correctly until she was 14 months old, accord-
ing to her mother. It was 240 over 110.

“She was going through her whole
life with high blood pressure,” Jessica
Roomberg said. “How many kids are
walking around with high blood
pressure?” “At that point, it shifted from being
selfi sh to carrying on her legacy to impact
other people’s lives,” Dan Roomberg said.

The Roombergs started planning the
foundation’s fi rst event, building the
website and meeting with a market-
ing agency. The parents set the initial
fundraiser for that summer at Maynard’s
in Margate, New Jersey. In the months
leading to the event, the couple
was “hiding from the world,” Jessica
Roomberg said. They were worried that
people would say, “Oh, there goes Jess
and Dan,” the mother added.

Five hundred people came. At its
coming-out party, the Magical Mila
Foundation raised $110,000.

“It was like the whole community
embraced us at once. They were going
to be there for us,” Dan Roomberg said.

After that event, the Roombergs
had weekly meetings with their CHOP
doctors. They funded a clinical trial to
fi nd a better blood pressure device
and created educational materials for
medical staff , like “little cheat sheets”
about the testing process, as Dan
Roomberg called them, for nurses to
wear next to their IDs.

Within two years, “We saw a 200%
increase in blood pressure measure-
ments in children under 3,” he said.

CHOP leaders are spreading the
process to their primary care locations
in the Philadelphia area. And in April,
Drs. Hachen and Kevin Meyers made
presented it to the Pediatric Academic
Societies Meeting in Washington, D.C.

“They’ve helped us put it on the
agenda. Everybody’s starting to look at
it,” Hachen said.

But for the Roombergs, every morning
is still hard. The parents often think,
“Why us?” But then they get up to keep
parenting Mila, as well as their other
two children, 3-year-old son, Liam, and
1-year-old daughter, Meadow.

“I’m proud of us. But I know we have
more work to do,” Jessica Roomberg
said. “They are long days,” Dan Roomberg
said. “But it’s all worth it at the end.”
To donate to the Magical Mila Foundation
and to learn about its upcoming events,
visit magicalmilafoundation.org. ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of the Roombergs
Jessica and Dan Roomberg