For many of her teenage years, Autumn Savage struggled to eat, and it was difficult for her to take deep breaths. Autumn, who lives in Seattle, was ultimately diagnosed near her home with superior mesenteric artery syndrome (SMAS), a rare condition that occurs when two arteries compress the duodenum, a part of the small intestine. This compression happens because of the small size of the mesenteric fat pad, a tissue that usually separates the arteries but that can shrink due to weight loss, which creates a barrier that food cannot pass.

“The food would literally hit that blockage in her small intestine and not go down any farther,” says her dad, Frank Savage, a longtime software engineer and game developer at Microsoft. As a result, Autumn’s weight dropped to a dangerously low 58 pounds.

Looking online for a doctor who could help, Autumn found pediatric surgeon Alejandro Garcia at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. The Savages were on a flight across the country within a week.

At the Children’s Center, the family learned that Autumn also had median arcuate ligament syndrome (MALS), a disorder in which the ligament located in the chest presses on the celiac artery. This stops blood flow to the stomach and can cause pain when eating. MALS is what first caused Autumn to have difficulty consuming food, leading to her weight loss and SMAS diagnosis. To address this, Autumn had two surgeries: In 2022, Garcia inserted a feeding tube to help food get past the blockage in the small intestine, and in 2023, he performed a procedure to release the ligament and restore blood flow. Within hours, Autumn could eat small amounts of food and take deep breaths again.

Now 21, Autumn is slowly gaining weight. The surgery for MALS also helped address the SMAS diagnosis — once Autumn was able to eat, the mesenteric fat pad expanded, creating space between the two arteries and taking pressure off of the duodenum. Autumn, who still has a feeding tube, recently celebrated a big win: She hiked a 4-mile trail in the Big Four Ice Caves, a favorite path in Washington. “She hadn’t been able to do anything like that in years,” Savage says. “The Children’s Center really saved her life.”

Wanting to give back, Savage found a good fit in the gaming initiatives led by the Children’s Center’s Child Life Department. A member of the team that created the original Xbox gaming console in 2001, he has worked on multiple editions of the Xbox. Savage has given nearly $60,000 through monthly contributions to help update existing Xbox 360 consoles at the Children’s Center to Xbox Series S, the latest version. So far, about 50% of the 165 gaming systems have been upgraded.

The Xboxes are an important resource for Child Life. “When children and teens are admitted to the hospital, they are experiencing loss of connections with family and friends and routine control over what they do,” says Patrice Brylske, director of Child Life services. “Offering immediate access to technology play is beginning to give them back some control in an environment where they are never really the driver. Frank’s generosity is allowing us to move much more quickly to update our Xboxes for this purpose.”