June 16, 2015

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Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace was on hand at the recent commencement ceremony at Baylor College of Medicine, as he has been on more than 20 other occasions. But this time, he too was being honored.

Wallace received an honorary degree – the Doctor of Humanities in Medicine. The honorary degree is awarded to individuals who have provided exceptional support or service, either directly or indirectly, to Baylor College of Medicine or to academic medicine as a whole.

As he received the honorary doctorate and shook the hand of Dr. Paul Klotman, Baylor’s president and CEO, Wallace said he reflected on how his relationship with Baylor began.

“In 1977 when I joined Houston Methodist, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey was Baylor’s president and was regarded as the number one cardiovascular surgeon in the world,” Wallace said. “I remember how aspirational DeBakey was about making Baylor a great medical school. I learned a great deal from DeBakey about the importance of teaching hospitals.”

DeBakey’s sister, Lois DeBakey, had nothing but kind words for Wallace regarding the recent honor.

“I am pleased to see Mark’s inordinate intellect, capabilities, talents and laudable personal qualities recognized in this way,” Lois said. “He should take just pride in the growth, expansion and high stature of the hospital system he’s shepherded for so long and so successfully.”

Wallace said it was during his early days at Methodist that he began to understand what contributes to the success of great academic centers of excellence – teaching hospitals like Johns Hopkins, Mass General or Boston Children’s, for example – is their affiliation with a medical school which attracts the best minds and the brightest individuals. He carried that knowledge and DeBakey’s wisdom with him to Texas Children’s, which has been affiliated with Baylor since its inception more than 60 years ago.

Today, Texas Children’s has a complementary mix of Baylor faculty and outstanding private pediatricians, surgeons and Ob/Gyn physicians who choose to practice at Texas Children’s and are dedicated to fulfilling our mission.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the tremendous work and dedication of everyone associated with Texas Children’s – the Board, executive and physician leaders, our extraordinary employees and everyone else who is somehow involved in our commitment to patient care, education and research,” Wallace said. “It is their dedication that allowed me to celebrate that very special moment.”

This news story includes excerpts from Mark Wallace’s June 4 On the Mark blog post “An honorary degree 38 years in the making.” Click here to read the blog post in its entirety.

Tuesday, June 16, 3:51 p.m.

Tropical Storm Bill has made landfall

Texas Children’s leadership and the Department of Emergency Management are closely monitoring Tropical Storm Bill, which made landfall this morning.

The Houston area is still expected to experience up to 8 inches of rainfall. There may be pockets of roadways that will be problematic during the course of the afternoon. With the potential for more heavy rain expected this evening, we urge employees to exercise caution as they drive home or make their way into work.

Any faculty, staff or trainees who need to leave early due to potential hazardous conditions at or near their home should contact their leader. Your personal safety is our priority and we ask you to take appropriate precautions when driving in areas with high water on the roadways.

We are taking all appropriate precautions according to our response plan, and we ask staff and employees to do the same.

Reminders and previous information

  • Inpatient and Outpatient Operations. At this time, we are continuing operations as normal throughout the Texas Children’s system. Leaders will continue to assess staffing needs over the next 24 to 48 hours and will make adjustments accordingly.
    • Please direct Main Campus inpatient calls to the NAC at Ext. 6-4282.
    • Please direct West Campus inpatient calls to the House Supervisor at Ext. 7-4700.
    • Please direct Pavilion for Women inpatient calls to Ext. 2-8133.
    • Some clinics and outpatient areas may delay patient arrivals or have cancellations. Please be patient with and accommodating of these adjustments.
  • Texas Medical Center parking accommodations. TMC has reprogrammed their parking system to allow 24-hour access to Texas Children’s night shift employee parking cards effective today at 5 p.m. through Wednesday.
  • Public transportation. Currently, Metro  is operating normally. If you are planning to travel by Metro bus or rail, you should not expect any issues with parking.

More information, including the latest weather, traffic and road conditions are available on the Emergency Management Connect site and the National Weather Service website.

Judy Swanson, Adminstrator on call
Amy Puglia, Emergency Management

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Dr. Peter Hotez works with several leaders in his current position, and he’s recently added the leader of the free world to that list. Hotez, who heads the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, is also dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He recently took on the role of U.S. Science Envoy appointed by the White House and State Department.

The U.S. science envoy program began in 2009 when President Obama expressed the need to reach out and engage with other countries beyond military activities. The program was created through the state department and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The U.S. Science Envoy program selects renowned and distinguished American scientists to promote the United States’ commitment to science, technology and innovation as tools of diplomacy and economic growth.

“President Obama recognized that our greatest resource here in the U.S. is our research universities and institutes as well as our hospitals,” Hotez said. “Yet we don’t really portray that to the world. This is our chance to change that.”

Currently the program officially employs three science envoys for a one year term. Hotez’s fellow envoys are involved in climate change and environmental initiatives while Hotez is taking on the task of vaccine diplomacy, creating a framework for foreign institutions to build their own infrastructure and develop vaccines needed in their region. Hotez’s initial targets for this work are Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Located in Northern Africa and the Middle East, the two countries are situated in areas with almost no ability to make vaccines.

“When diseases of regional importance strike, they are generally not of interest to the major multi-national pharmaceutical companies so vaccines don’t get made,” Hotez said. “As we saw with Ebola, once a substantial outbreak happens, it will likely not stay in that region.”

For Hotez, the envoy was both a great opportunity and a great responsibility. He said working for the first true global children’s hospital with the greatest global outreach of any pediatric institution, made the task an easier one to achieve. Texas Children’s already shares intellectual capital and manpower with countries in the developing world through the Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative, global surgery work, heart center outreach, the Cancer Center’s international initiatives as well as several other physicians who continue to expand the reach of their programs across the world. Hotez said it’s important to share intellectual capital and help these countries build their own infrastructure in order to have a lasting impact and succeed in this humanitarian goal.

“Citizen Diplomacy, our so-called ‘soft power,’ is one of the great underachievers in US foreign policy at this point,” Hotez said. “The idea that scientists would put aside their nation’s ideology to work together on a lifesaving product is what this is all about.”

While implementing science diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa, may be a tough task, it’s a role with global impact.

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By Janielle Harrison

In less than a month, my husband, Terrence, and I will welcome the arrival of our precious daughter, Addison, at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Her expected delivery date is July 24.

While most mothers-to-be discover their expecting after taking a simple home pregnancy test, that wasn’t the case for me. I never knew I was four weeks pregnant until my husband took me to the emergency room because I was having dizzy spells, feeling lightheaded and my blood pressure spiked. While I was waiting for my X-rays and blood test results to come in, Terrence and my 8-year-old son Dramodd stepped away to get something to eat. When they came back with their McDonald’s bags clutched in their hands, I broke the exciting news, “We are expecting!”

My husband was completely shocked and excited at the same time, and so was I. Immediately, he called his mom and dad to tell them the exciting news that they’d be grandparents! My son’s immediate reaction was, “Mom, you’ve been pregnant all this time and you didn’t know it?” I think he was saying my belly was getting slightly “bigger” like a pregnant person.

bwatchAs my due date approaches, my last trimester is going pretty smoothly. The first few months of my pregnancy was tough since I couldn’t hold anything down. I was severely dehydrated and my OB/GYN Dr. Carla Ortique had me admitted to the Pavilion for Women where I stayed overnight to receive intravenous fluids and anti-nausea medication. The nurses took excellent care of me. I am still taking medication for high blood pressure and visiting Texas Children’s Maternal Fetal Center every week to monitor my baby’s growth and development.

As we prepare for our daughter’s homecoming, my husband and I finished decorating Baby Addison’s nursery with princess and frog theme colors: mint green, lavender and chocolate brown. So many of our family members have showered us with beautiful gifts for Addison and they are so excited to meet our little princess.

I haven’t packed my hospital bag yet, but I am working on it. I expect to have everything ready to go by July 1 in case Addison decides to make her debut ahead of schedule.

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Texas Children’s Urgent Care is on Facebook. Like them today to receive the latest news and updates about their locations or follow along with the blog.

Texas Children’s Urgent Care was created to respond to the growing need for expert pediatric urgent care. We currently are serving those needs in two Houston-area locations in the Cinco Ranch and Memorial areas.

Our clinics are staffed by board-certified pediatricians who have privileges at Texas Children’s Hospital. Both locations are open in the evenings and on the weekends.

For more information about Texas Children’s Urgent Care, go to http://www.texaschildrens.org/urgentcare/.

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Maddie’s Mission, a Katy-based organization dedicated to educating people about a common virus that can cause a serious infection in your unborn baby, recently donated more than $40,000 to the CMV Research Fund to benefit congenital CMV research conducted at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.

Hundreds of children with a diagnosis of congenital CMV, or cytomegalovirus, are part of the program led by pediatric infectious diseases specialist Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison, an international expert who has spent more than 30 years caring for children affected by the condition.

CMV infections can be prevented during pregnancy, a vulnerable time to catch CMV, through “an ounce of CMV awareness and three simple precautions that include not sharing food or drink with a young child, avoiding kissing young children near the lips or cheek but rather kiss them on top of the head and giving them a big hug, and washing hands carefully after changing diapers or wiping runny noses,” Demmler-Harrison said, adding that Maddie’s Mission promotes “knowledge is key to no more CMV.”

Awareness of the potentially deadly virus is the goal of Maddie’s Mission, which was started by Farah and Patrick Armstrong last year after they lost their 12-day-old daughter, Maddie, to complications caused by CMV. Since then, the Armstrongs have thrown themselves into educating people about CMV and supporting groups devoted to finding out more about the virus, how to treat it, and possibly how to prevent CMV in pregnant women.

Physicians at Texas Children’s Hospital have treated many children affected by congenital CMV. One such child, who is shown in the adjoining photo, is Malcolm Alaimo. Malcolm travels from South Carolina for special treatments and is doing well. Another child Texas Children’s physicians have treated for CMV is Lillian Grace Salerno. Lillian has gotten antiviral treatment, hemispherectomy brain surgery, and other therapies for her congenital CMV infection at Texas Children’s Hospital, and has done well ever since.

“CMV is the most common virus most people have never heard of,” Dr. Demmler-Harrison said. “It does not often make the headlines or the evening news.”

Demmler-Harrison added that she is extremely appreciative to Maddie’s Mission for its donation and that it will be put to good use.

Tuesday, June 16, 6:56 a.m.

Texas Children’s executive leadership and the Emergency Management team are closely monitoring Tropical Disturbance no. 7, which has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Bill. The storm is expected to impact our area by mid-morning as it makes its way inland.  We will continue monitoring the weather throughout the day and reassess the situation this afternoon.

New information

  • Weather update. Tropical Disturbance no. 7 has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Bill. Heavy rainfall and strong winds are expected throughout the Houston area beginning   mid-morning and through Wednesday. The Houston area could experience between 7  to 8 inches of rainfall over a 24-hour period, with the heaviest rain hitting the western part of the city.
  • Inpatient and Outpatient Operations. At this time, we are continuing operations as normal throughout the Texas Children’s system. Leaders will continue to assess staffing needs over the next 24 to 48 hours and will make adjustments accordingly.
    • Please direct Main Campus inpatient calls to the NAC at extension 6-4282.
    • Please direct West Campus inpatient calls to the House Supervisor at extension 7-4700.
    • Some clinics and outpatient areas may delay patient arrivals or have cancellations. Please be patient with and accommodating of these adjustments.

Reminders and previous information

  • Using appropriate judgement. It’s important that we all remain mindful of our obligation to be here to provide uninterrupted care for our patients and their families. By the same token, we want you to be safe. We rely on your judgement in these situations to balance the need for your presence here with our desire to ensure you are not putting yourself in harm’s way.
  • Public transportation. Currently, Metro  is operating normally.   If you are planning to travel to work by Metro bus or rail, ensure you have an alternate means of transportation, as service may be limited this afternoon.
  • Flood doors and Garage Entrances. At this point, there has been no decision to close the flood doors or the garage entrances. They will remain open unless closure is absolutely necessary.
  • Back-up child care and elder care benefit. Backup care for children and elders is available to Texas Children’s employees through Bright Horizons. Click here for details.
  • Hurricane season planning. Ensure your personal emergency preparedness plans are in place, as hurricane season is here. Pack your disaster bag, confirm back-up child care and elder care plans, check emergency supplies, and ensure emergency contact numbers are correct.

Your disaster bag should include: your employee badge, bottled water and non-perishable food, light-weight clothing (including socks and under garments), linens (sleeping bags, sheets, pillows), medications/glasses/contact lenses, cash, phone charger, personal care items and toiletries.

  • Emergency communications. There are several ways to stay connected:
    • Global emails: Texas Children’s Global Alert emails will be sent as needed to provide updates.
    • Connect message: A message on the Connect home page also includes the latest updates.
    • Texaschildrensnews.org: All global alerts are being posted on our external news site,www.texaschildrensnews.org
    • Latest weather, traffic and road conditions are available on the Emergency Management Connect site and the National Weather Service

Please use caution when navigating roadways, and do not drive into flooded areas. Again, thank you for your commitment to caring for our patients and their families.

Judy Swanson, Administrator on call
Amy Puglia, Emergency Management