Brianna Herrera, 17, couldn't move after spinal fusion surgery earlier this year, a setback that seemed to close the door on ever attending her high school prom. Last Saturday, that door reopened inside Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, where dozens of teenage patients who had missed their own proms due to serious medical treatments or surgeries put on formal wear and danced beneath an Enchanted Forest theme built inside the hospital itself.
The hospital's lower level was transformed into a prom venue for the evening, complete with a grand entrance for arriving teens, as reported by ABC7 Bay Area. Hospital staff, volunteers and donors pitched in to provide formal attire, hair styling and makeup for the teens, according to the outlet's report. Dr. Jenna Timm, a doctor at Kaiser Oakland, said the teens had missed their proms and that the hospital wanted to make the evening magical and special.
Herrera said she could not move after having her spinal fusion, a detail that made last Saturday night's out feel far from guaranteed. Her mother, Hilda Herrera, thanked the volunteers and others who organized the prom and said the event gave her daughter an opportunity she was not expected to experience. Another attendee, Bella Guidos, said she loved the prom and felt it was the one for her.
A Dance Built Around Medical Reality
The teens who attended included patients facing life-threatening illnesses, along with others receiving lines, ports or surgeries as part of their ongoing care, per the same ABC7 account. Rather than sidelining these young patients from milestone experiences, the prom let them celebrate alongside friends, families and caregivers inside the same walls where they receive treatment. This year's dance is Kaiser Oakland's seventh, and according to Kaiser Permanente's My Doctor Online, it ran from 7 to 9 PM on the lower level of the Broadway facility, with dress fittings, hair and makeup available starting at 2 p.m. for registered patients ages 13 to 18 and a guest.
The tradition wasn't always uninterrupted. Kaiser Permanente Northern California notes the pediatric prom resumed in 2025 after being suspended since 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning older teen patients had gone years without the chance to attend. The same source states the annual event typically draws around 50 teenage patients and guests from across the East Bay, serving youth living with chronic conditions such as cancer, sickle cell disease and severe juvenile arthritis.
Why Hospitals Build These Nights In
The scale of need behind events like this one is national. Over 40% of school-aged children and adolescents in the United States live with at least one chronic health condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 2025 study published in PubMed Central estimates that 15% to 20% of U.S. adolescents live with chronic medical conditions lasting three months or longer, leaving them at elevated risk for social isolation due to frequent hospitalizations and school absenteeism.
Events such as pediatric proms are typically organized by Child Life Specialists, who work to reduce anxiety, pain and emotional trauma through therapeutic play and normalized childhood experiences, according to research published in PMC. Kaiser Oakland is well-positioned to run programs like this: the facility operates as a designated tertiary regional pediatric referral center for Alameda County, according to the California Department of Health Care Services, providing specialized intensive care and subspecialty pediatric services across Northern California.
A Legacy Site With a Growing Regional Role
The Oakland campus carries deep institutional history as well. Kaiser Permanente established the site in 1942 after purchasing and remodeling the former Fabiola Hospital, making it Kaiser's very first hospital campus, per Kaiser Permanente Northern California. More recently, in August 2025, Kaiser Permanente Oakland was selected alongside two other Bay Area hospitals to receive and treat gravely injured pediatric trauma patients evacuated from Gaza for complex surgeries and rehabilitation, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the Bay Area's welcome for injured Gaza children.
Kaiser Oakland isn't alone in bringing this kind of programming back. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals in Oakland and San Francisco have also revived in-person patient proms following pandemic-era virtual events, placing Kaiser's Enchanted Forest night within a broader pattern among Bay Area pediatric health systems working to give hospitalized teens a version of the milestone their illnesses nearly took away.
