September 7, 2016

Take a look at the latest time lapse video capturing the remarkable and steady progress of the construction of Pediatric Tower E.

9716cdiff640Cody Knight was15 years old when he came down with a serious intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. diff). Despite antibiotic treatments, the infection kept coming back at least three times over a six-month period.

“My son lost 15 pounds and it took weeks for him to gain enough strength to do anything,” said his mother Holly Knight. “He missed the last week of school and never really got a chance to play freshman football due to his frequent bouts with vomiting and diarrhea. As a last resort, Cody received a fecal transplant two years ago at Texas Children’s which has improved his symptoms tremendously.”

To improve outcomes for C. diff patients like Cody, Texas Children’s Microbiome Research Center received a 5-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate a multi-center study to combat C. diff, the most common and potentially deadly bacterial infection impacting children and adults in the U.S.

C. diff, a bacterium that causes diarrhea and severe inflammation of the colon, is a hospital-acquired infection often associated with inappropriate antibiotic use. While antibiotics are used to treat infections in children and adults, they can also disrupt the natural communities of healthy bacteria in the gut, allowing C. diff to colonize and cause disease.

“C. diff is a disorder of microbial ecology,” said Dr. James Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief and director of Texas Children’s Microbiome Center. “Some patients are more susceptible to C. diff recurrence following treatment with antibiotics while other patients may struggle with infections due to drug-resistant bacteria including C. diff. These issues can pose enormous challenges to successfully treating these patients.”

At Texas Children’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, our physicians are continuously challenged by many infectious agents and drug-resistant pathogens. Being at the leading edge of “big” discovery science requires a highly collaborative approach to uncover the causes of C. diff infection and drug resistance in children and women.

“This 5-year grant will accelerate our existing work in C. diff as it relates to the human microbiome,” said Dr. Tor Savidge, associate director of Texas Children’s Microbiome Center and principal investigator of this study. “Our long-term goal is to achieve a better understanding of why certain patients fail antibiotic treatment and which patients are more susceptible to recurrences in order to help us develop new methods to treat C. diff infection.”

Using a systems biology approach and the latest state-of-the-art technologies, Savidge and his team – including research partners at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, University of Houston, and UCLA – will analyze the stool specimens of C. diff patients at Texas Children’s and compare it to specimens of healthy adults and children. These researchers, who form an integral part of the C. diff Gulf Coast Collaborative, will also examine the common threads and differences between adults and children with C. diff infection. A unique aspect of this study is the inclusion of infants who are not susceptible to this pathogen.

“Babies in their first year of life may be colonized during infancy by C. diff,” Versalovic said. “Their microbiome develops very early in life but infants may or may not respond to the toxins produced by C. diff. We have much to learn about the susceptibility of young children to C. diff disease. We know that the numbers of children infected with C. diff have expanded greatly in the past 15 years.”

This collaborative study is a direct result of the Precision Medicine Initiative led by President Barack Obama designed to equip clinicians with the necessary resources to determine which treatments will work best for which patients based on specific characteristics like human genetic makeup, or in this case, the bacterial composition of a patient’s microbiome.

Texas Children’s is uniquely positioned as the leading research site for this study. Besides the Department of Pathology’s diagnostic capabilities to test for C.diff in children and women, Texas Children’s Microbiome Center has partnered with Dr. Richard Kellermayer from the Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition section to offer fecal transplants as a treatment alternative for children with recurrent C. diff infection.

“It’s important for the medical community to be smarter about antibiotic use and its effects on the microbiome,” Savidge said. “I think some fundamental lessons will emerge in this 5-year study that will help us understand childhood infections and lifetime risk of serious infections further down the road.”

For Cody’s mom, she is grateful that Texas Children’s is leading this study and is hopeful that a cure for C. diff will one day be found.

“I met so many children and adults suffering with recurring C.diff when Cody was ill,” Knight said. “I support any research that can be done to prevent another child from being as sick as Cody was for such a long period of time.”

9716sskatiejones175Katie Jones of Infection Control is the latest Texas Children’s Super Star employee. “Working at Texas Children’s has afforded me the opportunity to grow as an educator and presenter, so that I can share my passion for infection control with health care providers and encourage them to be infection prevention advocates in their own areas,” Jones said. Read more of her interview below and find out how you can nominate a Super Star.

Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
Katie Jones, Infection Control Coordinator, Infection Control. I started working for Texas Children’s in July 2015.

What month are you Super Star for?
September 2016

Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
I thought I was attending a regularly scheduled staff meeting, and at the last minute we changed rooms. When I arrived, I saw that leaders from quality and critical care nursing were at the table. They do not normally attend our regular weekly staff meetings. My manager said he had an announcement, it all felt very serious with our additional guests in attendance so I was a little worried at first – but then he announced that I had received the Super Star award! It was very surprising and flattering! It was so much fun to share that moment with my department and enjoy cake and punch with them.

What does it mean to be recognized for the hard work you do? How has the organization helped you achieve your personal and professional goals?
Everyone I encounter at Texas Children’s gives 110 percent of themselves every day, so it is really an honor to be selected. Working at Texas Children’s has afforded me the opportunity to grow as an educator and presenter, so that I can share my passion for infection control with health care providers and encourage them to be infection prevention advocates in their own areas.

What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
Coming to work every day ready to say “yes” to any challenge.

What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
I believe there is a patient advocacy element to everyone’s job in a health care environment – even if you don’t provide direct patient care. I love that by working in Infection Control, I have an opportunity to play a role in the development and implementation of initiatives that can protect our patients and help Texas Children’s continue to be a leader in patient care, research, and education.

What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
I am inspired every day by the passion exhibited by our frontline health care workers and my fellow infection control team members. We are all very supportive of each other and one person’s success is a victory for the whole team.

What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
Leaders identify themselves by their actions, not their job title. By encouraging everyone to put our patients and their families first, the behavior that makes someone a leader in their own role is naturally supported.

Anything else you want to share?
I want to thank the Shannon Holland and the PICU team for nominating me for this award. It is truly a privilege to work with them.

9716jjwattandjeston640Earlier this summer, one of Texas Children’s patients Jeston Adams’ dreams came true – the 8-year-old got to meet his hero J.J. Watt. Since then, Jeston’s relationship with the Houston Texans football player has grown into a full-fledged friendship that has kept him going during his search for a new heart.

To Watt and Jeston’s amazement, that search ended three weeks ago when congenital heart surgeon Dr. Iki Adachi implanted a new heart into Jeston’s chest. The Louisiana native is recovering and being cared for by Dr. Jeff Dreyer, medical director of the Heart Transplant Program, and other members of the Heart Center team.

“Jeston has a very infectious personality,” Dreyer said. “He’s had a great attitude and that’s contributed to his recovery.”

After his transplant, Jeston worked with Texas Children’s Child Life team to create a video for the man he calls his big brother. Watt shared the video on social media.

“He has been a warrior through it all and handled it with such a positive attitude,” Watt wrote on Instagram. “He truly is an incredible kid with an amazing spirit. No matter what gets us down in life, how bad we feel or how negative the situation may seem, if we keep a positive attitude and fight with everything we’ve got, incredible things are possible. That’s what Jeston has taught me.”

Click here to watch CBS 11 KHOU’s update on Jeston.

9716singlevisitsurgery640Patients with simple surgery needs can now be seen in clinic by pediatric surgeons and have surgery on the same day at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. The hospital’s new Single-Visit Surgery program provides a convenient option for busy patient families and consists of a clinic appointment in the morning and, if necessary, an outpatient surgical procedure that same day.

“This program reduces the time and travel often necessary for families in need of pediatric surgery,” said pediatric surgeon Dr. Sohail Shah. “We are excited about being able to offer this highly accessible service to our patients and their families.”

Currently, patients who qualify for the program are children without a complicated medical history and who have the following conditions:

  • Umbilical hernia (3 years and older)
  • Inguinal hernia (12 months and older)
  • Hydrocele (12 months and older)
  • Epigastric hernia (any age)

“All of our lives are busy, and overscheduled parents are thrilled to accomplish what used to take two days in only one. The families who have to travel to Texas Children’s Hospital from far away are especially appreciative,” said Chief Surgical Officer at the West Campus Dr. Allen Milewicz. “All the members of our West Campus team came together – nurses, schedulers, finance, and administration, to – craft a process improvement that would result in a great patient experience.”

To schedule an appointment or if you have questions about the Single-Visit Surgery program, please contact the Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus Pediatric Surgery Clinic at Ext. 7-2250.