Front and Center: Hannah Lambert
Published on Monday, April 22, 2024
By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu
Photos By: Jay Ferchaud/ UMMC Communications
Hannah Lambert’s career has taken her back to where she started.
As a medical office assistant in the University of Mississippi Medical Center Women’s Specialty Care at the Jackson Medical Mall, she greets, among others, patients of UMMC Center for Maternal and Fetal Care.
Born with a lymphatic malformation (also known as cystic hygroma), a benign but life-threatening tumor that starts in utero, Lambert has been a patient of UMMC since her mother received prenatal care from the center.
Lambert is shown getting a kiss from her mother during her stay in the NICU.
“I spent five months in the neonatal intensive care unit after I was born,” she said. “Helping patients who are getting care where my mother did, through the Center for Maternal and Fetal Care, brings it all full circle.”
The center offers the largest group of maternal-fetal subspecialists in the state as well as a comprehensive team of pediatric subspecialists and support services.
Lambert, at 14, served as Mississippi’s 2015 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Champion, representing Children’s of Mississippi and its patients during a year that included media interviews and public appearances. She was a model in the Junior League of Jackson’s Mistletoe Marketplace fashion show and was interviewed on live TV at the Friends of Children’s Hospital Miracle Home giveaway.
That year, she and her mother traveled to Washington, D.C., and Florida, where they met other Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Champions from around the country.
“It was a fun year,” Lambert said. “My mother and I enjoyed meeting the other Champions and their families. We made so many special connections, and I’m still in touch with them today through Facebook.”
Lambert’s mother Nicki Dunaway, a strong supporter of Children’s of Mississippi, died in 2020.
“When I was in the NICU, she came down to do an interview during the first Mississippi Miracles Radiothon,” Lambert said. “She wanted to make sure that all the children of the state got the specialty care they needed just like I did. She is who taught me how to be a strong advocate for myself and others. I miss her lots.”
Mississippi Miracles Radiothon interviews were part of Lambert's year as the state's Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Champion.
As she grew up, Lambert had surgeries to remove tumors, starting when she was 5 days old. By the time she was a teenager, she had more than 40 and used a feeding tube and tracheostomy for part of her childhood. Dunaway homeschooled her daughter during high school in Vicksburg because her immune system was compromised.
The exact cause of lymphatic malformations is unknown. Lymphatic malformations result from abnormalities in the development of the lymphatic vascular system during embryonic growth. In many patients, the lymphatic malformations have a mutation in a particular gene.
When Lambert was 17, she was referred to Dr. Betty Herrington, director of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, who has expertise in treating children with lymphatic and vascular malformations/tumors. She was started on a targeted chemotherapy drug and quickly experienced a dramatic improvement in clinical symptoms and quality of life. As an adult, Lambert still sees Herrington at the Children’s of Mississippi Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders for care.
Herrington“Hannah is extremely resilient and maintains a positive attitude even when facing surgery, chronic illness and ongoing chemotherapy treatment,” Herrington said. “She is living life to the fullest, and I am so proud that she’s joined us at UMMC.”
Lambert credits UMMC and Children’s of Mississippi with compassionate care throughout her life and being a great place to work.
“I love it here,” she said. “When I started working here, I wondered, ‘Will I fit in?’ but everyone here has been wonderful!”
Lambert completed her high school education in 2019 and earned certification as a phlebotomy technician. After joining UMMC earlier this year, she’s planning on going further in her career.
“I’m looking into health information technology,” she said, “I’d love to further my education and earn my degree.”
She and husband Matthew Lambert call Pearl home. She’s an avid reader, and she and her husband enjoy traveling as well as spending time at home with cats Sage and Maple.