Transplant teams with Texas Children’s Hospital performed 95 solid organ transplants in 2014, continuing to serve as one of the largest, most active, and successful pediatric transplant programs in the nation.
The heart and the lung transplant programs were the largest in the country last year. Overall, Texas Children’s was the second largest transplant program in the country. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital was the largest with a total of 102 transplants.
“Texas Children’s Transplant Services continues to earn its reputation as one of the best pediatric transplant programs in the country,” said Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services.
“In 2014 – the 30th anniversary of the Heart Transplant program – the service performed the most transplants in its history. In addition, all of our transplant services continue to produce great outcomes for our patients.”
Goss said Transplant Services sponsored its first Transplant Symposium in 2014 and added a dedicated immunologist who is researching the interactions between allographic responses.
“I believe our success is a testimony to the skill and commitment of our multidisciplinary team,” he said.
By Shelly Lopez-Gray
First, let me say that there is no such thing as “eating for two.” I know this is a huge disappointment, as many people out there would love to use their pregnancy as an opportunity to eat every single thing that they ever thought tasted good (I know, I’ve been there). But let me fast forward through your pregnancy a bit – it’s unhealthy for you, it’s unhealthy for your baby, and the pregnancy weight is not going to magically fall off.
As you begin your pregnancy, I wanted to share some key things to remember:
You need about 300 extra calories a day during pregnancy to support your baby’s growth and development.
Most doctors suggest women gain a total of 1 to 4 pounds total during the first three months of their pregnancy.
Women who gain too much are more likely to have a large baby or a premature baby.
A premature baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. These mothers may also have health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure that can cause problems during pregnancy.
The total amount of weight gain during your pregnancy depends on your weight when you become pregnant. Talk to your physician or midwife for more information.
Tips to help you create better eating habits:
Watch how much juice you drink. Even all-natural and 100 percent juice is full of sugar and empty calories. If you find it impossible to cut out these sweet drinks, treat yourself to a small glass once a day. If you are gestational diabetic, you should cut these out from your diet.
Anything canned or frozen is full of salt. Even if it’s a “healthy meal,” it’s still full of salt.
Try snacking on something healthy every two hours or so.
If you can pick the food up in a drive-through, it’s probably unhealthy.
Here’s a list of fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains and protein foods that are great for women to eat throughout their pregnancy.
Vegetable Group
Carrots
Sweet potatoes
Pumpkin
Spinach
Cooked greens (such as kale, collards, turnip greens, and beet greens)
Winter squash
Tomatoes and tomato sauces
Red sweet peppers
These vegetables all have both vitamin A and potassium. When choosing canned vegetables, look for “low-sodium” or “no-salt-added” on the label. Vitamin A helps with postpartum tissue repair and helps to fight infection. Potassium helps to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance in your body’s cells.
Fruit Group
Cantaloupe
Honeydew melon
Mangoes
Prunes
Bananas
Apricots
Oranges
Red or pink grapefruit
100 percent prune juice or orange juice
These fruits all provide potassium, and many also provide vitamin A. When choosing canned fruit, look for those canned in 100 percent fruit juice or water instead of syrup.
Dairy Group
Fat-free or low-fat yogurt
Fat-free milk (skim milk)
Low-fat milk (1 percent milk)
Calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage)
These all provide the calcium and potassium you need. Make sure that your choices are fortified with vitamins A and D. A vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can cause growth retardation and skeletal deformities. It also may have an impact on birth weight. Some researchers believe that a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy can affect your baby’s bone development and immune function throughout your baby’s life.
Grain Group
Fortified ready-to-eat cereals
Fortified cooked cereals
When buying ready-to-eat and cooked cereals, choose those made from whole grains most often. Look for cereals that are fortified with iron and folic acid. Iron is essential for making hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells. During pregnancy, the amount of blood in your body increases almost 50 percent, so you need more iron to make more hemoglobin.
Protein Foods Group
Beans and peas (such as pinto beans, soybeans, white beans, lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas)
Nuts and seeds (such as sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, peanuts, and peanut butter)
Lean beef, lamb and pork
Oysters, mussels, crab
Salmon, trout, herring, sardines, and Pollock
Some types of seafood can contain high levels of mercury. Too much mercury can damage your baby’s developing brain and nervous system. Shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish can contain high levels of mercury.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency say pregnant women can safely eat up to 12 ounces (340 grams) of seafood a week. Similarly, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 8 to 12 ounces of seafood a week for pregnant women – or about two average meals.
Talk to your provider if you have any questions about safe foods during pregnancy.
The Clinical Research Center will present the Clinical Research Award for First Quarter 2015 to Dr. Poyyapakkam Srivaths, Department of Pediatrics-Renal, Baylor College of Medicine.
The award was established by the Clinical Research Center in collaboration with the Research Resources Office to recognize and honor individual contributions to protecting the best interest of the research subjects and compliance with applicable rules and regulations.
Dr. Srivaths’ research activities in the CRC focus on investigating cardiovascular morbidity associated with end stage renal disease (ESRD) in children.
Congratulations to Dr. Srivaths.
Texas Children’s Hospital is excited to announce the addition of Dr. Sundeep Keswani. Keswani, whose appointment was effective March 2, is a pediatric and fetal surgeon at Texas Children’s and an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded laboratory.
“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Keswani to our team,” said Dr. Jed Nuchtern, chief of the division of pediatric surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor of surgery and pediatrics at Baylor. “Dr. Keswani provides expertise in several important areas that our division is expanding or creating. These include fetal diagnosis and therapy, pediatric wound care and general pediatric surgery. He also brings a significant NIH-funded research effort that will be a substantial addition to our current research portfolio.”
Keswani completed his surgical residency at Louisiana State University in his hometown of New Orleans and a fellowship in fetal surgery and surgical research at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He subsequently trained in pediatric surgery at the Saint Louis Children’s Hospital and the Washington University School of Medicine.
Keswani’s research interests closely pair with his clinical interests and include fetal regenerative wound healing, gene therapy applications, bone marrow contribution to tissue repair and fetal diagnosis and treatment. Currently, he is the principle investigator of a R01 and K08 grant from the National Institute for General Medical Sciences at the NIH. The goal of his research is to understand the underlying mechanisms of how the fetus heals without scarring to achieve postnatal regenerative tissue repair in various organ systems.
Texas Children’s division of pediatric surgery is one of the most robust pediatric surgery programs in the country with 16 full-time pediatric surgeons on staff. The range of surgical procedures performed by the division include fetal surgery, abdominal and thoracic surgery, pediatric surgical oncology, minimally invasive surgery including laparoscopic and thorascoscopic diagnosis and treatment, endocrine and biliary surgery, and adolescent bariatric surgery. In 2014, the division of pediatric surgery completed 5,792 surgeries and 11,809 clinic visits.
Texas Children’s Fetal Center works hand-in-hand with the division of pediatric surgery and is committed to providing the best possible care and outcome for each mother, baby and family. The core staff of Texas Children’s Fetal Center includes fetal and pediatric surgeons, maternal fetal medicine specialists and specialized coordinators. The Fetal Center’s physicians are recognized leaders in fetal medicine and fetal and neonatal surgery. As one of only a few centers in the United States to provide the full spectrum of fetal therapies, Texas Children’s attracts parents from around the world seeking the ultimate in care for their unborn child.
March 31, 2015
One month after their successful separation surgery, Knatalye and Adeline Mata are progressing well as two separate little girls.
Knatalye can breathe on her own and was recently transferred to the Progressive Care Unit where she will resume her recovery. Her sister, Adeline, is still on a ventilator in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), but her doctors remain optimistic that she will breathe on her own just like her twin.
“Knatalye’s progress has been a tiny bit faster than Adeline, but it was just because of where they started out,” said Dr. Darrell Cass, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center. “We’re still in the acute recovery phase of care where we’re working on breathing, sedation and pain management and working on their intestinal function.
Prior to the girls’ separation surgery, Knatalye and Adeline spent the first 10 months of their life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they received daily care from their team of NICU nurses. To adequately prepare them for their separation surgery, the NICU nurses helped engineer a custom bed space for the girls in the NICU and collaborated with Hanger Clinic, to devise a swing that would safely keep the twins upright for a large portion of each day after their tissue expanders were in place.
“We emotionally, physically and intellectually invested a lot of care in the girls,” said Alex Luton, a clinical nurse specialist at Texas Children’s Newborn Center. “I know it was a difficult but necessary transition for them to go to the PICU.”
To ensure a smooth transition of care for the girls and their family, the NICU nurses partnered with the PICU team before and after the separation surgery.
“We sent a couple of nurses per shift for the first few days post operatively to kind of be there as a familiar face for the family as they began to build their relationships with nurses in the PICU,” Luton said.
Each of the babies had a PICU nurse and a NICU nurse for the first few days after separation surgery.
“As they stabilized and their condition improved, one nurse was assigned for each baby,” said Shannon Holland, assistant director of nursing in the PICU. “Now, they have one nurse for the two babies together.”
In addition to receiving around-the-clock care from the PICU nurses, Knatalye and Adeline receive therapy every day – physical therapy in the morning and occupational therapy in the afternoon to optimize their muscle development and motor coordination.
“We are practicing a lot of reaching and grabbing using both hands, bringing their hands together, banging toys together, visual tracking, “said Texas Children’s occupational therapist Chelsea Pierce.
Texas Children’s physical therapist Frank McCormick assists the girls with head control, trunk control, stretching, range of motion and working with their feet.
“The sessions are dictated by kind of what they can tolerate,” McCormick said. “Usually 30 minutes is a window, but if they can go further and are still awake and participative, then it can go upwards of 45 minutes to an hour.”
While Knatalye and Adeline’s recovery will take some time, their doctors are optimistic about their future.
“We would expect their gait, their walking stride, to be somewhat altered initially,” Cass said. “We’ll have to monitor them. With some therapy, we’re optimistic that they will be able to walk and live a normal life.”
Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Charles D. Fraser also shares that same spirit of optimism.
“This is another example of why a case like this should be done at Texas Children’s because we have the team and expertise to handle complex medical conditions,” Fraser said. “I am very, very confident that we will continue to move them on a positive recovery trajectory.”
Eighteen years ago, Adam Henderson lost his hair as a result of treatments while battling acute lymphocytic leukemia at Texas Children’s Hospital. As of a few days ago, Henderson is once again bald after participating in the St. Baldrick’s event in The Woodlands with his former pediatric oncologist, Dr. Timothy Porea. Both Porea, clinical director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, and Henderson shaved their heads to raise funds and awareness for pediatric cancer research along with about 60 other participants.
“It is the first time Adam has been bald since he had been treated for his cancer 18 years ago,” said Porea who was a fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital when Henderson was undergoing treatment. “He’s just a great role model for our current patients and their families to show how far you can go when you’re through with these difficult treatments.”
“There were a lot of emotions about being bald again,” Henderson said. “This time, I’m doing it by choice and it’s a joyous occasion because I was able to promote a great cause. When I was sick, I was beat down, it was very difficult when I lost all of my hair.”
Porea has participated in the fundraising and head shaving for the last ten years. He had previously taken part in the events in Virginia. This year, after a move back to Houston, he was excited to call his former patient to join him. Porea and Henderson have kept in touch over the years and are even counselors together at Camp Periwinkle.
“It’s more than just a profession to Tim,” Henderson said of his former physician. “It’s true to his character and speaks to where his heart is. He’s an inspiration.”
St. Baldrick’s annual challenge to “Brave the Shave” brings together survivors, patient families, physicians and supporters from across the community to raise funds for childhood cancer research. This year, the nationwide shaving events have raised more than $22 million so far. The foundation was started as a response to the lack in funding for childhood cancer research. According to the organization’s website, while 175,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year, all types of childhood cancers combined receive only 4 percent of the U.S. federal funding for research. The funds raised through St. Baldrick’s have helped fund 820 grants, at 329 institutions, in 22 countries. Several have been given to researchers at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers. For Porea, who sees these patients every day, this research is vital to the discovery of better treatments and the possibility for a cure.
“Seeing Adam next to me for this event means we have succeeded, he’s here!” Porea said. “He’s able to do all of these things despite everything he went through as a child. It helps reinforce to me why we all do what we do here every day.”
For Henderson, his new bald look is a conversation starter. Most importantly, it brings attention to a disease he’s all too familiar with.
“At first, the conversation about being bald starts off as kind of a joke with people commenting on my ‘nice haircut’,” Henderson said. “But when I share my story and specifically talk about St. Baldrick’s, it’s impactful. People take it very seriously and there have been a lot of people that have walked away from these conversations with more knowledge and awareness.”
Asked how long he plans to continue shaving his head for childhood cancer research, Porea didn’t hesitate to answer.
“As long as I have hair.”
April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day when the international community will “Light It Up Blue” to bring recognition to autism as a rising global health concern. Texas Children’s encourages everyone to wear blue that day or post something blue to one of their personal social media pages to show their support for autism awareness.
Autism spectrum disorder is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States, affecting 1 out of every 68 children. It occurs more often among boys than girls. Children with autism often experience significant social, communication and behavioral challenges.
For more than a decade, Natanya Dugall searched for a diagnosis for her son that would explain his vision, speech and movement impairments. She knew something was wrong with Grayson from the moment he was born, but initial genetic testing turned up nothing.
When Grayson turned 13, Dugall received some unexpected news. A laboratory had identified chromosomal deletions on a specific gene in Grayson’s DNA which had been collected years earlier. After the initial find, Grayson participated in a study at the Autism Center at Texas Children’s that examined the effects of people who grew up with either chromosomal deletions or copies on this gene.
When the Dugall family made the 1,120-mile trek from their home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Houston in 2011, their quest for answers to Grayson’s puzzling condition was confirmed – he had autism.
“I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the research team from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital for funding all of the testing and travel expenses,” Dugall said. “Grayson understands the probability that he can pass this to his children – knowledge that we struggle with but are so grateful to finally know.”
The Autism Center’s multidisciplinary team of specialists from developmental pediatrics, psychology, psychiatry, neurology and social work provide diagnostic evaluations and ongoing clinical care to 2,000 patients with autism each year. Researchers at the Autism Center participate in a wide range of research studies focused on autism spectrum disorders, collaborating with scientists from other renowned centers across the nation.
In conjunction with the groundbreaking work emerging from the The Autism Center, Dr. Ruth Ann Luna at Texas Children’s Microbiome Center focuses much of her research on the link between disturbances in the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in children with autism. One of her biggest motivators is her 6-year-old son, Kellen, who has autism.
With the support of a $1.4 million, three-year-grant from Autism Speaks, Luna and her Baylor and Texas Children’s colleagues are embarking on a study to determine if a biological connection exists between autism and GI disorders.
“I was in awe when I found out we were awarded this funding to advance autism research,” Luna said. “The data gleaned from our research will benefit my son and other families who have children with autism, especially those children with limited verbal abilities.” Click here to read more about Luna’s autism study.
For more information about “Light It Up Blue, click here and to learn more aobut the Autism Center at Texas Children’s click here.
The Clinical Research Center will present the Clinical Research Award for First Quarter 2015 to Dr. Poyyapakkam Srivaths, Department of Pediatrics-Renal, Baylor College of Medicine.
