May 6, 2019

Three-year-old Wade Davis rarely laughed or smiled as a baby. Before coming to Texas Children’s Hospital two years ago, the now energetic, gregarious little boy was very subdued.

“I just thought he was a serious child,” said Wade’s mom, Katie Davis. “I didn’t think there was anything physically wrong with him.”

But there was, and Katie quickly learned after a trip to the emergency room that Wade had a rare form of cancer in both of his eyes. Called retinoblastoma, the cancer begins in the back of the eye and is most commonly found in young children. Only 300 cases are diagnosed in the United States each year.

To get the best care, Wade and his family traveled from their home in Lacassine, Louisiana, to the Texas Medical Center where they met with members of the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston, the only center of its kind in the southwest United States.

Created a decade ago, the center combines expertise from Texas Children’s Cancer Center, the Children’s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Together these specialists pioneer advancements in treating and curing retinoblastoma through ground-breaking research and the development of innovative therapies.

The center sees 20 to 25 patients a year, offering each one access to a team comprised of an ocular oncologist, pediatric oncologist, ophthalmic pathologist, cancer geneticist, genetic counselor, radiation oncologist, interventional radiologist, nurse practitioner, nurse coordinator and social worker. The team’s multidisciplinary approach results in an individualized treatment plan for each patient.

Depending on the kind and stage of retinoblastoma, the team offers treatments such as intra-arterial chemotherapy, intravitreal chemotherapy, systemic chemotherapy, laser therapy, cryotherapy, enucleation, proton beam radiation therapy, and brachytherapy. In children with widely metastatic disease, the center offers therapies such as autologous stem cell transplant.

“No other program of this type has the level of multidisciplinary expertise that we have at the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston,” said Dr. Murali Chintagumpala, clinical co-director of the center, pediatric oncologist at Texas Children’s Cancer Center and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “We are on the cutting edge of research performing important clinical trials that incorporate innovate treatment options such as intra-arterial, intravitreal and proton radiation therapy.”

For Wade, and other children like him, the center and its experts saved and changed his life. Dr. Dan Gombos, clinical co-director of the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston and ocular oncologist for the Children’s Cancer Hospital at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Dr. Frank Lin, a member of the center, a pediatric oncologist at Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology/Oncology, at Baylor College of Medicine, were his primary physicians.

Working together with the rest of the center’s team, Gombos and Lin devised a comprehensive treatment plan for Wade that included surgery, multiple rounds of chemotherapy, cryotherapy and laser therapy. Fortunately, the vision in his right eye was saved and his cancer has been eradicated, allowing him to blossom into a feisty, full-of-life little boy.

“We are so thankful for what these doctors have done for our son,” Katie Davis said. “Everyone has been absolutely incredible.”

Lin said it’s a privilege to be able to work with patients like Wade and to be celebrating 10 years of partnership with other members of the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston.

“Our goal, beyond curing this disease, is to use the least invasive treatment necessary to save the child’s life, and when possible, their eye and their vision,” Lin said. “With the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston, our patients meet world class specialists focused on both their immediate oncology treatment as well as long-term follow-up so that they can thrive in the future. The center also provides them invaluable information about the genetics of their tumor and the risk to future siblings or ultimately their own children so that monitoring for early detection can be performed.”

The center currently is focusing its research on more effective ways of delivering therapy locally to the affected eyes while minimizing the side effects on the rest of the body. The center is also studying the mechanisms that spread the disease beyond the eye in children with retinoblastoma with the goal of developing treatments for this complication of the disease.

To learn more, visit the Retinoblastoma Center of Houston’s Website at rbhouston.org.

Texas Children’s Emergency Management and Bone Marrow Transplant teams recently conducted their first full-scale radiation injury treatment exercise partnering with outside agencies to simulate their roles in a radiation-related event.

As a member of the Radiation Injury Treatment Network (RITN), Texas Children’s conducts annual exercises as part of our emergency preparedness activities. RITN is a system of hospitals affiliated with the National Marrow Donor Program providing comprehensive evaluation and treatment for victims of radiation exposure. MD Anderson Cancer Center is the only other RITN member organization in the Greater Houston area.

“Over the past three years, the Emergency Management team at Texas Children’s has worked closely with the Radiation Injury Treatment Network to increase the fidelity and realism of the drills we have been conducting,” said Dr. Brent Kaziny, Medical Director of Emergency Management. “Developing plans for such hopefully never-in-our-lifetime events is one of the many responsibilities of Emergency Management. Seeing plans tested first as tabletop drills and eventually as full scale exercises allow us to pinpoint where improvements need to be made. Texas Children’s Hospital has come so far, and watching these plans become operational is extremely rewarding.” 

Texas Children’s Emergency Management Manager Aaron Freedkin agreed and said if there was a radiation event nearby, Texas Children’s would get many of the affected pediatric patients.” 

“That’s why it’s so important for us to practice and prepare for such an event,” Freedkin said. “Last week’s exercise gave us a great opportunity to do that.”

The seven-hour event was the first full-scale radiation injury treatment exercise the organization has participated in and tested our response following the mock detonation of an improvised nuclear device that sends patients requiring bone marrow transplant or supportive medical care to Houston by way of the National Disaster Medical System.

The exercise involved various outside local, state and federal agencies including the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council, Veteran’s Affairs, and American Medical Response. The exercise began at Ellington Field, a joint military and civilian airport that would host the Patient Reception Center during a large-scale disaster. Run by the Veteran’s Affairs Federal Coordinating Center, the center would receive patients from outside Houston and coordinate available local resources.

Texas Children’s Bone Marrow Team Member Dr. John Craddock said understanding who the local players are and how to work with them is a great addition to the annual exercise, which typically has been a tabletop exercise with the exception of last year when it expanded to a large scale functional exercise involved Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

“This year, the exercise was full scale, giving us a more realistic idea of what we would be dealing with,” Craddock said. “I think it was very informative.”

During the exercise, Craddock and another members of the Bone Marrow Transplant team helped receive, triage and assign for transport to area hospitals 50 mock pediatric patients and 50 adult patients. The pediatric patients at Ellington Field were played by high school students from Friendswood High School. The adult patients at Ellington Field were played by adult volunteers from various civic groups including Bay CERT, a local Community Emergency Response Team.

The second half of the exercise took place on the fourth floor of the Pavilion for Women, part of which was turned into a Patient Reception Center for the patients coming to Texas Children’s Hospital for evaluation and/or treatment. Those mock patient and their family members were played by DeBakey High School students and saw members of our pathology, chaplain, social work, patient experience and case management teams before being transferred to a patient care room if necessary.

“This is the first time we’ve simulated going from plane to hospital,” said James Mitchell director of Organizational Resilience and Emergency Management. “Going through the entire process really expanded our knowledge about how this would work.”

Texas Children’s celebrated Laboratory Professionals Week April 21-27 with a variety of activities and events. Many were honored for their tenure in the department and others for their dedication to the mission of the profession.

“Laboratory Professionals Week provides the profession with a unique opportunity to increase public understanding of and appreciation for clinical laboratory personnel,” said Texas Children’s Director of Pathology Ann O’Connell. “The clinical laboratorian is a key member of our health care team, playing an increasingly vital role in the diagnosis and prevention of disease.”

The Texas Children’s Department of Pathology hosted two lectures and an awards ceremony during Laboratory Professionals Week. The first lecture honored Texas Children’s former Division Chief of Clinical Pathology and current Director of Pathology Informatics Gregory Buffone, Ph.D.

Buffone, who will soon retire after 40 years with Texas Children’s, has served in many roles in the Department of Pathology, always as a passionate advocate for patient safety and quality in laboratory medicine. In addition to a dedicated laboratory professional, Buffone also is an avid photographer. As a tribute to Buffone and his contributions to the Department of Pathology, several of his images are on permanent display in the Pathology Gresik Conference Room in the basement of the West Tower Building.

Pathologist-in-Chief Dr. James Versalovic celebrated his 10th anniversary as head of the Department of Pathology at Texas Children’s. Versalovic has been with Texas Children’s for nearly 18 years and has made significant strides in the Department of Pathology, growing the department’s faculty and clinical staff two fold. He spearheaded the creation of the Genomic Medicine and Transfusion Safety divisions and invested time and effort in growing the Texas Children’s Microbiome Center. Versalovic also led a multitude of critical initiatives across the organization. He was instrumental in the creation of the innovative partnership with Quest Diagnostics and most recently has worked on the adoption and implementation of Epic Beaker.

“Please join me in congratulating Jim on this milestone, and for his superb leadership and the incredible achievements he has accomplished during his tenure,” Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace said. “We look forward to celebrating many more years of success with him!”

The annual Virginia Deeken Memorial Lecture presented by Aaron West Assistant Director also included two types of awards. The GJ Buffone Pathology Improvement Award recipients Dr. James Dunn, Clarah Mutandiro, Amber Ashgar, Marcus Mpwo, Awilda Rivera and Rina Riordan won the award for their Improved Turnaround Time for Urine Culture Reporting initiative. The Individual Excellence Award recipients were Purnima Rania and Renee Webb. The award honors employees who consistently going above and beyond expectations of job performance.

“Thank you for all of your hard work and contributions toward the care and diagnosis of our so many complex patients,” said Executive Vice President Mark Mullarkey. “Your work is endless, 24/7/365 and it directly impacts the care delivered to our patients we serve.”

April 30, 2019

On his blog this week, Mark Wallace invites you to share your leadership story with him and how it relates to his leadership maxims. Read more

Regem Biyo shares how grateful she is to begin her nursing career at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women and how the organization is helping her grow in her new role. Read more

Last year, Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands celebrated its first year serving patients north of Houston and beyond, collecting praise from patients and families seeking expert care closer to home. Read more

Houston Texans linebacker Benardrick McKinney announced the 161st pick in the 2019 NFL Draft on April 27 live from NRG Stadium during the Houston Texans Kids Triathlon. The triathlon is the largest kids triathlon in the word and is presented by Texas Children’s Hospital.

Flanked by triathletes, Texans cheerleaders and TORO, McKinney excitedly proclaimed to a live and national broadcast audience that the Texans had chosen defensive end Charles Omenihu as the team’s 161st draft pick. The Pro Bowler and TORO then took a celebratory dip in the Texans Kids Triathlon pool!

Click here to watch a video of the pick and here to see photos.

More than 3,000 participants ages 6 to 15 turned out for the Houston Texans Kids Triathlon on April 27 and 28 at NRG Stadium, making it the largest USATriathlon sanctioned kids triathlon in the world for the fourth consecutive year.

Texas Children’s Hospital presents the event as part of the hospital’s partnership with the Texans and local sponsorship of PLAY 60, the NFL’s initiative aimed at encouraging kids to get sixty minutes of play per day.

Click here to see photos from the triathlon.