June 21, 2016

62216TCHPquilt640Debbie Spence, LVN, recently designed a colorful signature quilt to honor the nurses from the Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) where she works as a medical compliance auditor.

“I’ve made special quilts in the past, but most, if not all, were for a specific person or to honor someone who was going through a difficult time,” Spence said. “I felt in my heart that making a quilt would honor the nurses I work with and making a signature quilt would be the best way to accomplish this honor.”

Designed with various combinations of fabrics to represent the uniqueness of our nurses, the individual quilt squares contain the name, nursing school and the year of graduation for each TCHP nurse including the nurses from The Centers for Women and Children in Greenspoint and Southwest.

“Everyone was very supportive of this project,” Spence said. ”It was such a joy to create this quilt to represent us – the Texas Children’s Health Plan.”

Spence’s quilt will be displayed in the TCHP’s new offices at 6330 West Loop South and will serve as a constant reminder of how special and dynamic our nurses are at the TCHP.

June 14, 2016

61516RadioLollipop640Radio Lollipop is searching for volunteers who can bring energizing music to patient rooms through the volunteer-run radio station at Texas Children’s Hospital Main Campus.

Radio Lollipop broadcasts to all patient rooms from the Kids’ Own Studio located on the 16th floor of West Tower. Children can phone in song requests, sing along to the songs on the radio, tell jokes and serve as a guest DJ every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

For children who are not able to make it to the studio, volunteers visit them in their rooms where they do crafts, play games and participate in call-in contests to win prizes. Volunteers deliver prizes to the winning patients on their floors as well as patients who need an extra pick me up to brighten their evening.

“We depend entirely on our volunteers to keep our radio station up and running,” said Texas Children’s Child Life Activity Coordinator Leslie White. “In the past month, we had to cancel our Radio Lollipop services three times due to not having enough volunteers which means we missed out on visiting more than 500 patients. We hope to get an adequate amount of volunteers this year so we can continue providing this amazing program to our patients and families.”

As a completely volunteer-run program, Radio Lollipop is always looking for energetic, committed and dedicated volunteers who want to add fun to the lives of our patients while making their hospital stay more enjoyable and less frightening.

Radio Lollipop volunteers must be 18 years or older (no high school students) and commit to Radio Lollipop for at least six months. Orientation is offered to new volunteers and individuals are welcome to shadow Radio Lollipop volunteers to watch the radio program in action before making a commitment to volunteer.

No radio experience is necessary. If you have what it takes to be one of the few, the proud, the silly, click here to access the online application form. Be sure to indicate that you want to volunteer for Radio Lollipop under the “Please provide any additional information about yourself,” portion of the application form.

For more information about Radio Lollipop including a virtual tour of the studio, click here.

61416ChroniclePhilanthropyAd300Texas Children’s is the honored sponsor for every Tuesday’s “Houston Legends” series. For more than 20 weeks, we will showcase the legendary care Texas Children’s has provided since 1954, and focus on milestone moments in our unique history. Also, a complementary website offers a more detailed look at our past, our story and our breakthroughs.

On the right is the Texas Children’s ad that is featured in this week’s Chronicle. Click the ad to visit our companion website at texaschildrens.org/legendarycare. The website will change weekly to complement the newspaper ad, which will be published in section A of the Chronicle on Tuesdays for the next 20 weeks. We also will spotlight this special feature weekly on Connect, so stay tuned to learn and share our rich history.

Click here to visit the Promise website.

61516transplantinside640A team of transplant recipients and living donors from Texas Children’s are in Cleveland, Ohio this week competing in the Transplant Games of America. A group from Texas Children’s has participated in the games for the past several years and will this year compete in 13 different events including golf, baseball, tennis, poker, trivia and more.

“We all are very excited about the opportunity to participate in this event,” said Melissa Nugent, educational coordinator for Transplant Services and a chaperone at the games. “It’s amazing to be here and to see what these children are able to do because they were given the gift of life.”

One of Texas Children’s team members is 13-year-old Cade Alpard. Cade was diagnosed with biliary atresia at 6-weeks-old following being jaundiced at birth. He was put on the liver transplant list by six months of age and at 1-year-old received his transplant. The road to transplantation was anything but easy, though with Cade developing every complication known to biliary atresia and according to his mom, Jennifer Alpard, even inventing his own.

Before receiving a new liver, Cade had a host of issues that landed him in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit including an adverse reaction to an antibiotic and a central line infection. He was discharged and the family had round-the-clock nursing care at home because Jennifer and her husband, Scott Alpard, both continued to work full time. Cade was fed and given medication through his IV and one night his nurse sent in an order for routine labs, including liver and kidney functions. Jennifer received a confusing call from Texas Children’s Emergency Center that evening explaining Cade was in kidney failure. She asked, “Don’t you mean liver failure?”

The physician explained that because of the antibiotics reaching a toxic level, Cade was not only in liver failure, but also kidney failure and lost his hearing. That night, Cade was admitted to Texas Children’s for the 15th time in his short life and was immediately placed on dialysis. In addition to the liver and kidney failure, he also went into respiratory failure and found himself back in the PICU.

The Alpards were told that patients don’t usually recover from three organ failures, but they didn’t lose hope. Cade spent nine weeks in the PICU and his parents never left his side. One night, Jennifer awoke to Cade’s crib filled with blood. His nurse sprang into action and transfused his blood. A few hours later, the Alpards received the call they were anxiously waiting for – a liver was available.

Dr. John Goss, medical director of Texas Children’s Transplantation Program, and his team harvested a liver from a 3-year-old girl and transplanted it into 1-year-old Cade, who recovered well and went home on 15 different medications. At 15-months-old, Cade received a cochlear implant and began intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy at home and at Texas Children’s. Little by little he learned to crawl and then walk, he learned to swallow and eat normal foods and started down a path of a happy, healthy life.

Now, Cade is a typical 13-year-old boy who loves sports – especially baseball. He competes on a tournament team and plays catcher and second baseman. He’s known as a “diamond thief” because he steals home and is one of the fastest members of his team. Baseball is one of the events Cade is competing in this week at the Transplant Games of America. His dad will join him not only for support, but as a bone marrow transplant donor as well.

Watch an ABC-13’s story about Cade and his trip to the games here.

“These games are truly a celebration of life,” said Sarah Koohmaraie, a liver transplant coordinator, a living donor and a two-time participant in the Transplant Games of America. “It is a time to reflect upon the gift of life that was given by deceased and living donors and donor families.”

Heart Transplant Coordinator and Transplant Games of America chaperone Diana Harter agreed and said the games are a way to celebrate the journey of her patients, all that they’ve overcome and all that lies before them.

“It is a way to honor their hardships and struggles, while embracing gratitude that they are still here to do great things with their amazing gift,” she said. “I feel honored to share this experience with my patients and their families this year – it is an opportunity for us to celebrate the gift of life and remember those donors that made this possible for them.”

61516Butterflyroom640On May 25, Texas Children’s Newborn Center welcomed more than 120 guests to celebrate and bless its newest room – The Butterfly Room – where neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) families can privately say goodbye to their loved ones.

The Butterfly Room is aptly named to represent the patients’ transition from life to death. The conception of this room began 15 months prior to opening and was spearheaded by  a special NICU nurse, Aimee Renaudin, who wanted peace and private care for the grieving parents of her patients.

“This room was inspired by the families I met in the NICU at Texas Children’s who had lost their babies,” Renaudin said. “Their stories, courage and strength were the motivating factor in creating The Butterfly Room. I am honored to know each one of them and consider it the biggest privilege to have taken care of their precious babies. My prayer is that this room will provide a tranquil home-like atmosphere, away from the busyness of the NICU,  a place of comfort and peace for families to say goodbye.”

The celebration, held at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, was filled with Renaudin’s friends and family, including her partners in the project, Genie Renaudin (her mother) and Kristen and Adam Wheeless, as well as families who had lost a child at the Newborn Center and saw a need for this type of room.

Thanks to the generous donations from 249 donors, more than $60,000 was raised to support this project and provide comfort for grieving NICU families.

Speakers at the dedication ceremony included Renaudin, Chief of Neonatology Dr. Gotham Suresh, NICU Nursing Director Heather Cherry, NICU Vice President Judy Swanson and Texas Children’s chaplain Kirstin Springmeyer who presided over the blessing of The Butterfly Room.

June 1, 2016

6116ChronicleEducationinside350Texas Children’s Hospital is proud to be a part of the Houston Chronicle’s 115th year celebration, which kicked off this week. To mark this occasion, the Houston Chronicle launched a six-month commemorative series that will tell the dramatic stories of Houston as “A City That Could.”

As part of this historic event, each daily publication of the Chronicle will feature an editorial section highlighting Houston’s iconic people, events, business, culture, medical and sciences, sports and major events.

Texas Children’s is the honored sponsor for every Tuesday’s “Houston Legends” series. For more than 20 weeks, we will showcase the legendary care Texas Children’s has provided since 1954, and focus on milestone moments in our unique history. Also, a complementary website offers a more detailed look at our past, our story and our breakthroughs.

On the right is the Texas Children’s ad that was featured in the Chronicle. Click the ad to visit our companion website at texaschildrens.org/legendarycare. The website will change weekly to complement the newspaper ad, which will be published in section A of the Chronicle on Tuesdays for the next 22 weeks. We also will spotlight this special feature weekly on Connect, so stay tuned to learn and share our rich history.

6116runforreason640Texas Children’s Hospital was again chosen to be an official charity for the January 15, 2017 Houston Marathon and Half Marathon, which means you can run for a reason. You can be on the Texas Children’s Running Team and fundraise on behalf of Texas Children’s Hospital, knowing your donations will directly impact the lives of countless sick children.

Learn more and how to sign up for the team.