By Eli Miller, executive director
Our Mission: To enhance the quality of life for people with special needs caused by rare genetic disorders
Greetings from your neighbor, DDC Clinic – Center for Special Needs Children!
First, let me introduce DDC Clinic to those of you who don’t know us. DDC Clinic provides compassionate care and translational medicine to people with special needs caused by rare genetic disorders. Our staff of 10, works out of a beautiful building in a country setting on Madison Road that was built by the faith, hope, love, hard work and generous hearts of a community that cares for one another and strives to help carry each other’s burden.
Twenty-five years ago, five Amish families and a few non-Amish friends made a two-day trip to Lancaster Pennsylvania to visit a Dr. Morgan and his unique medical clinic that was featured in a Readers Digest story. These families all had something in common. Each of them had a child or multiple children with severe handicaps. The children seemed healthy at birth, but soon after, the parents noticed developmental delays that worsened as they grew older. Upon arriving at Dr. Morton’s clinic, he took immediate interest and spent the next two days with them. However, this wasn’t enough time to find answers to these complex disorders. Dr. Morton told them, “The distance is too far to continue coming here. Go home and start your own clinic that specializes in rare genetic disorders.”
From that initiative, DDC Clinic was born and today, is recognized internationally for its cutting-edge translational medicine and specialized expertise for numerous rare genetic conditions. Most of DDC’s patients are Amish from Ohio and surrounding states, however, non-Amish families have traveled to DDC Clinic from states as far away as Alaska, Hawaii and California, and from foreign countries like the UK, New Zealand, Australia, China and Canada.
Our in-house CLIA certified research laboratory is only twenty steps from our patient exam rooms. This unique approach means faster diagnoses and potential treatments for the patients, resulting in reduced worry, anxiety and medical costs for the families and the community.
DDC Clinic is a non-profit organization. Patients are charged a modest fee for each office visit or other service. However, this accounts for only a small fraction of the funding needed to operate such a medical facility. The rest of our funding comes from generous individuals, businesses, private family foundations and fundraisers.
If you are in the area, please feel free to stop in, or give us a call to find out more about DDC Clinic. Thank you for supporting and accepting DDC Clinic in the community. Until next time!
The DDC Clinic in located at 14567 Madison Road, Middlefield, OH 44062, 440-632-1668
Find them online at DDCclinic.org
