Pediatric endocrinology team cheering on 9-year-old competing in national Braille competition

The pediatric endocrinology team at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital is watching 9-year-old Mila Halling closely this week. Not because they’re concerned about her blood-sugar levels, but because Mila is competing in 2025 Braille Challenge national competition.

When Mila was born, doctors knew something wasn’t right. Mila’s body couldn't regulate her temperature or maintain her blood sugar level. Mila was in hospital for eight days on what her mother Amanda described as a “rollercoaster ride.” Doctors sent Mila home with medication to suppress her insulin. Amanda had to call and report Mila’s blood-sugar levels every day.

When Mila was 2 months old, she was diagnosed with septo-opticdysplasia, which occurs when the brain doesn’t form correctly. It affects the structures in the midline of the brain. That includes the optic nerves, which are necessary to tell your brain what you’re seeing, and the pituitary gland, which is the master gland for hormone production.

Kyriakie Sarafolgou, MD, and Melena Bellin, MD., endocrinologists with M Health Fairview Pediatrics and the University of Minnesota Medical School, treat Mila’s hormone concerns.

Mila is being treated for panhypopituitarism – often shortened to panhypopit – a rare condition that involves a lack of all the hormones your pituitary gland makes. These hormones are essential for several different bodily functions, including growth and regulating blood-sugar levels and body temperature.

“Mila is just a lovely kid. She’s very smart,” Bellin said. “She’s also a pretty normal, healthy kid. She just needs medication to replace the hormone deficiencies that her body needs to stay healthy and grow and develop normally.”

It's very common with panhyopit to have deficiencies in the thyroid hormones, growth hormones, and cortisol. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to replace those hormones.

“It can be overwhelming for parents to hear about the condition and the medications,” Bellin said. “It's a lot to come in and say, ‘here are these four or five hormones that we need to give you in four different medications. Some are injections. Some are pills. Some you have to increase when you're sick.’ It sounds like a lot right away. But families really learn this quite quickly.”

With the hormones in place, kids go on to live very typical lives, Bellin said. 

When Mila was 6 months old, she started working with a teacher for people with vision impairment. She learned to read and write in Braille. She will show off what she knows when she competes in the national Braille competition in Los Angeles. The competition will test her skills in reading, writing, proofreading, and reading charts and graphs, spelling, and typing accuracy.

A leader in hormone care

M Health Fairview has been a leader in making hormones therapy management easier on families.

Bradley Miller, MD, an endocrinologist with M Health Fairview and the University of Minnesota Medical School, led the international group to approve a once-weekly injection of growth hormone. Previously, it had to be injected daily.

Sarafolgou led the research to get soluble hydrocortisone approved for babies with panhypopit who need cortisol replacement. The medication used to be difficult for families. The pill form was too strong for babies, so the medication had to be compounded in specialty pharmacies, but it didn’t stay stable for long, so they had to pick it up frequently. Thanks to Sarafolgou’s work, it’s now available at any neighborhood retail pharmacy.