In 1985 a doctor treating a young girl named Ariel Glaser asked a question that would uncover a family tragedy: Had she ever received a blood transfusion? Her mother said no. The one who had received blood was her. Four years earlier, in August 1981, Elizabeth Glaser had suffered a severe hemorrhage while giving birth to Ariel in Los Angeles. Doctors saved her life with multiple transfusions, but the blood she received was contaminated with HIV. At the time the virus had not yet been identified, and blood donations were not tested for it. Elizabeth went home with her daughter and began breastfeeding. No one knew she was infected. In 1984 the couple’s second child, Jake, was born, and the family continued living without any suspicion of what had happened. Elizabeth’s husband was Paul Michael Glaser, the actor known worldwide as Detective Starsky on Starsky & Hutch. The truth surfaced only when Ariel became seriously ill. Tests confirmed that Elizabeth and both children had HIV. Ariel had contracted it through breast milk; Jake had been infected during pregnancy. Paul tested negative. The diagnosis was only the beginning. In the mid-1980s, AIDS research focused mainly on adults. Infected children had far fewer treatment options, and available drugs were only beginning to be studied for pediatric use. Elizabeth sought out doctors, contacted researchers, and began pushing for children to be included in scientific efforts against the disease. AZT was approved for adults in 1987, but getting suitable treatments for children remained extremely difficult. Ariel’s condition worsened. Elizabeth met with U.S. government officials and medical specialists to demand more research and better access to experimental drugs for pediatric patients. On August 12, 1988, Ariel died of AIDS-related complications. She had just turned seven. That same year Elizabeth, together with her friends Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis, founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation to fund research on pediatric HIV and promote treatments for affected children. The organization also supported studies aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission. Elizabeth continued the work as her own health declined. She died on December 3, 1994, at the age of 47. The foundation later took her name and expanded its programs to many countries. Her son Jake survived. Thanks to medical advances he has lived into adulthood with HIV and has taken part in the work of the organization his mother created. One detail remains on the emblem of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation: a garden filled with flowers, hearts, and a sun. Ariel drew it in 1988, the year she died.