Photo credit: Smiley N. Pool
When many people think about tuberculosis (TB), they consider it a long gone, archaic disease. Their minds might conjure up images of a bygone era – of “consumption,” overcrowded sanatoriums, and rows of patients lying outside in bitter cold air in hopes of relief. TB is often no more than a fleeting thought for much of the developed world…for it has been cred and eradicated, right? WRONG!
TB is the leading infectious disease killer in the world. Every year across the world, it causes disease and suffering in 10 million people and claims the lives of 1.5 million. Despite...
In July, 13-year-old Mac Barrow was diagnosed with a mild case of COVID-19. He recovered well and the virus didn’t slow the active teenager down for long. In August, though, he fell ill with what his parents, Kara and Hunter, thought was a stomach bug. When his symptoms persisted for days, they took him to Texas Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Center for further evaluation.
“When we went to the Emergency Center, I thought he was going to get some fluids and we would be on our way,” Kara said. “Instead, Mac was being admitted to the ICU.”
Mac’s ICU admission followed tests that resulted in a diagnosis of multisystem inflammatory...
PHOTO: Getty Images
We blinked and it is officially fall. This time of year brings annual gatherings full of family, friends and food. Undoubtedly, the holidays will look and feel different this year with the COVID-19 pandemic. That does not mean skipping the celebrations all together, but it does mean we may have to pivot.
Beginning with Halloween, how you celebrate should depend on a variety of factors, particularly related to local transmission and hospitalization rates, and how cold and flu season is shaping up in your area. Based on where you live,...
When Ximena MolinaParra arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital in October 2018, she was in liver failure. The baby with a full head of dark hair was in desperate need of a transplant, and a few days before we rang in 2019, she underwent the life-saving surgery. I met her and her mom, Yaqueline, just a few days later, never imagining that I’d be walking alongside her in her hospital journey for more than 600 days.
As a physician assistant (PA) in the Department of Surgery at Texas Children’s, I work for the abdominal transplant surgeons and work closely with a host of other care team members. My primary role is to not only have extensive...
Photo courtesy of Travis Politakis
As a child, I was always susceptible to infections and was often sick. Respiratory infections, that at most, cause a simple cold or a mild sickness in other kids, would hit me harder and get me really down. None of the doctors we consulted could figure out why. They suspected I had bronchitis and put me on a lot of medication, including antibody infusions.
When I was about 9, we moved from Philadelphia to Texas and I became Dr. Celine Hanson’s patient at Texas Children’s Hospital. She and Dr. Lisa R. Forbes...