May 15, 2018

One week before Texas Children’s Legacy Tower opens on Tuesday, May 22, employees and patient families will notice several new changes to our food services at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus. Additional enhancements are underway at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands to provide more meal options for our employees, staff, patients, and their families as well.

“After receiving constructive feedback from our employees, we wanted to take a proactive approach to improve the food service and dining experience for them as well as our visitors and patient families,” said Senior Vice President Tabitha Rice. “We are very excited to offer these new lunch and dinner options across our three hospital campuses to better serve the needs of our employees and patient families.”

Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus

Starting on May 14, The Fresh Bistro at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women will extend its hours of operation. Instead of closing at 4 p.m., the Bistro will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Working late or just too exhausted to cook dinner? The Bistro now offers take-home meal kits available in the On the Go cooler Monday through Thursday. The meal kits offer a protein, starch, and a vegetable for two for $14 plus tax. The items are fully cooked and all you need to do is pop it in the microwave.

The Coffee Corner across from The Fresh Bistro is another convenient place to grab a quick bite to eat. Opened Mondays through Fridays from 6 a.m. to midnight and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, the Coffee Corner serves fresh coffee, pastries, paninis, soups, salads and On the Go meals.

If you enjoy good old fashioned barbecue, Liberty Street BBQ will be coming to the food court at Mark Wallace Tower beginning in July. Liberty Street BBQ will serve smoked in-house meats, fresh sides, and of course, delicious desserts like banana pudding. The concept will change each month to offer our families and staff a larger variety of food choices.

West Campus and The Woodlands Campus

West Campus and The Woodlands Campus are offering more meal options to enhance the food service experience for our employees, patients and their families.

A Kids’ Corner will provide kid-friendly snack options including fruit and cheese snacks, animal cookies, squeezable apple sauce, string cheese, milk, bottled water and fruit juices.

From barbecue picnics to Louisiana cuisine to South American treats like papusas, the Monthly Chef specials will provide a variety of meals from different parts of the U.S. and around the world.

Meyer Market

Earlier this month, the Meyer Market on the first floor of the Meyer Building, began offering more lunch options for employees. Freshly prepared meals are now available Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. A calendar menu is posted in Meyer Market and in the first floor lobby of the Meyer Building.

The hot meal options were added to the current point of sale system. Employees can pay by credit card or use their current Meyer Market account. The Fresh Bistro at the Pavilion for Women provides the meals.

For questions related to this article, please contact Michelle Roane at maroane@texaschildrens.org.

On April 20, The Woodlands Recognition and Rewards Committee proudly presented the second-quarter Shining Star award to Esmeralda Miranda and Dr. Ammar Yamani.

The employee-recognition award was launched after the opening of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands in April 2017 and honors those who go above and beyond to provide exceptional care to our patients, families and staff in The Woodlands.

Miranda, department secretary with Facilities Operations, was nominated by her co-workers and described as “promoting all of the core values day after day not only in her work but in all her interactions with patients, visitors, and fellow Texas Children’s Hospital workers.

“Her willingness to assist by adapting to different roles at Texas Children’s proves the type of character she is,” her co-workers said. “We need and value individuals like her who set those core examples without even knowing how much positive influence that are promoting within our Texas Children’s foundation.”

Yamani, an anesthesiologist in The Woodlands, was nominated for his holistic approach to patient care and was described as “someone who surpasses his duties as an anesthesiologist and consistently creates an environment of comfort, support, and safety for outpatients and families. He also is a joy to work and collaborate with on our multidisciplinary team in surgery.”

A huge congratulations and thank you to Miranda and Yamani for being the Shining Star and going above and beyond for our patients, families and co-workers.

Almost 130 children, ages 8 to 12 years old, recently attended “Camp Pump It Up,” a camp for patients with cardiac disease and their siblings.

In existence for almost 20 years, the camp has grown allowing more children to experience a weekend away with other children with heart disease. For many the camp is their first time away from home due to medical concerns, which can be managed by the medical team at camp, but would be an issue at other camps without a specialized medical team.

“Having been the physician for many of them, it is very evident how much this weekend means both to the patients but also to their families,” said Dr. Heather Dickerson, camp director and Texas Children’s cardiologist. “What this camp does for these children has kept me coming back and supporting camp for all of these years.”

During the three-day camp, campers experience horseback riding, zip lining, canoeing, fishing and archery, among other activities, for the first time, giving them to the opportunity to forget for a short time about medicines, clinic visits, tests, surgeries and all else that is involved with having a chronic disease. Long-term friendships often are formed they find out they’re not alone and that there are other children with the same issues.

Staff attending the camp were from the following departments:

Cardiology
Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
Congenital Heart Surgery
Child Life
Social Work
Occupational and Physical Therapy
Respiratory Care
Perfusion
Biomedical Engineering
Pediatric Radiology
Residents, patients and friends of Texas Children’s
Baylor College of Medicine staff members

Texas Children’s Hospital is proud to announce Dr. Edward Buchanan as chief of plastic surgery effective May 9.

Buchanan, who specializes in pediatric plastic surgery and craniofacial surgery, joined Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine in 2011. Throughout his tenure, he has served in numerous leadership roles and has been integral in many complex cases, including the successful separation of two sets of conjoined twins.

“I am honored to be named to this esteemed leadership position,” said Buchanan. “Our team is committed to helping our patients function at the highest level so they feel and look their best. I am excited to continue to expand our world-class multidisciplinary programs as well as our surgical research and innovation.”

Buchanan earned his medical degree from The Medical University of South Carolina and completed his residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also completed a fellowship in craniofacial/pediatric plastic surgery at Seattle Children’s Hospital/Harborview Medical Center. His areas of interest include pediatric craniofacial surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery, facial trauma, maxillary and mandibular distraction, and pediatric oncologic reconstruction.

To learn more visit texaschildrens.org/plasticsurgery.

On May 6, over 30,000 people from across the Greater Houston community laced up to participate in the 2018 March for Babies walk at the University of Houston, including around 400 Texas Children’s employees, patients and their families who all share the same passion for improving the health of babies.

This year, Texas Children’s contributed $103,000 as a sponsor of the 4.5-mile walk and our employees have personally raised more than $78,000 to date to support the March of Dimes. Baylor College of Medicine, US Anesthesia Partners and Morrison partnered with Texas Children’s and sponsored snacks and dessert, water, t-shirts, a tent and disc jockey.

Several months prior to the March for Babies walk, departments and units from across the organization formed their own teams to help raise money and rally support around this worthy cause. Creative teams across the organization hosted barbecues, designed and sold t-shirts, held bake sales, arranged bike tours and even paid to give their leaders a pie in the face to raise money and awareness. Each of the 30 teams raised an average of $2,600 all of which helped Texas Children’s exceed this year’s fundraising goal of $100,000.

“It was great to see everyone come together and support the March of Dimes’ mission for healthy moms and strong babies,” said Lynda Tyer-Viola, Vice President of Nursing for Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. “Since 1984, Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine have received more than $16 million from the March of Dimes to support research to prevent birth defects and prematurity. Our long-term partnership has helped significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for some of our most fragile babies – giving hope to patients and families when there once was none.”

The Society for Pediatric Research (SPR) recently gave two Texas Children’s trainees national research awards for their outstanding research on kidney disease at this year’s annual Pediatric Academic Societies’ SPR meeting.

Joseph Alge, a medical resident in the Pediatrician-Scientist Training & Development Program (PSTDP) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), received the SPR House Officer Research Award, and Rachel Shenoi, a junior at The University of Houston and participant in the 2017 SMART program at BCM, received the SPR Student Research Award. The SPR annually honors students engaged in pediatric research to encourage pediatricians in training to pursue careers in academic pediatrics.

According to Dr. Michael Braun, Texas Children’s Hospital physician, these accomplishments are worth celebrating because it is rare for an institution to receive one award, let alone two awards in the same research area.

“It’s very exciting,” said Braun. “These awards are not only a recognition of the quality of the science being done, but also the individuals working at Texas Children’s Hospital.”

Dr. Scott Wenderfer, Texas Children’s physician and BCM Assistant Professor, has been Rachel Shenoi’s mentor throughout her research process.

“Rachel is exactly the type of person we want to be bringing into Texas Children’s Hospital and into Pediatric Nephrology,” said Wenderfer. “Investments in ambitious and talented undergraduates will provide exposure to the unmet needs and growing opportunities for Pediatric Research. Her success has been a pleasure to witness as a mentor.”

SPR’s mission is to create a network of multidisciplinary researchers that can connect and collaborate all while working to improve child health.

May 9, 2018

From the time Colton Makow was born, he faced an uphill battle. He spent his first 61 days of life in Texas Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and while there, was told by doctors that his kidneys were damaged from lack of oxygen and that he one day would need a transplant.

Devastated by the news, Colton’s mother, Julie Makow, knew she would do everything she could to save her son, including giving him one of her kidneys if that’s what it took to keep him alive.

“I always thought, if given the chance, that’s going to be the one thing I can do to make it better,” Julie said. “I knew I was going to be a part of that, and that I would be the first one tested to be a match.”

Julie got her chance to see if she was a viable donor candidate when doctors told her and Colton, then 6 years old, that it was time to make a move toward getting a kidney transplant. After the test, Julie was told she was a perfect match and that she could donate one of her kidneys to her son.

In February, Dr. Christine O’Mahony, surgical director of kidney transplantation at Texas Children’s Hospital, performed the surgery. Texas Children’s performs about 30 kidney transplants a year. When the organ comes from a living donor, it typically lasts longer. For Colton, that means hopefully it will be a long time before he needs another transplant.

“He’ll have to go see the physicians a lot more frequently than he would if he were another kid, he’ll have to get labs, but his life will otherwise be the same,” O’Mahony said. “He can play sports, go to school and be just like everybody else.”

Kirti Bhakta, the transplant coordinator who worked with Colton and Julie, said she has witnessed the selfless sacrifices parents make for their children time and time again.

“It is truly heartwarming,” she said. “So many of our parents will do anything to give their children a better chance at a good life. Their actions are the epitome of unconditional love.”

Dr. Sarah Swartz, medical director of dialysis for Texas Children’s Hospital, also worked with Colton and Julie and said their story is perfect for Mother’s Day.

“Colton now has the chance to live a better life, thanks to his mom,” Swartz said. “What a beautiful reminder to him and others the power of a mother’s love as well as the difference an organ donor can make in someone’s life.”

Click here to learn more about how to become an organ donor and here to read a story by KHOU11 about the Makows.