Erroneous e-mail about medications falsely tied to Children's

E-mail has added a lot to our lives – maybe too much. The average person’s inbox is flooded with advertisements, inspirational poems with pictures of kittens, requests for money from exiled African royalty and the ever-present forwards from our newly-introduced-to-e-mail family and friends. With so many messages bombarding us, it’s difficult to decide which to open and read, much less to figure out what’s truth and what’s fiction.

For example, a viral e-mail is currently making the rounds between private accounts and public message boards warning of a danger posed by mixing the over-the-counter medications Motrin and Robitussin. The e-mail suggests a female hospital patient (usually named Madison or Madeline) died from cardiac arrest after her parents gave her a combination of Motrin and Robitussin. Different versions of the e-mail have been circulating the Internet for more than a year.

Don't believe it
In 2009, a Children’s employee received the e-mail from a friend and inadvertently forwarded it from a work account. Because the employee’s professional signature was included at the bottom of the e-mail, the information appeared to come from a reliable source at Children’s Medical Center. This is not the case.

And, in regard to the claim that the combination of Motrin and Robitussin causes death, don’t worry. There is no evidence to suggest that ibuprofen, dextromethorphan or pseudoephedrine can cause heart attacks in otherwise healthy children or adults when combined (if taken in the directed amounts). The FDA says so.

However, all medications can have side effects, and parents of children with underlying medical conditions must always be vigilant about the medications their child is taking. When in doubt, consult your child’s healthcare provider or a pharmacist before mixing over-the-counter medications.

So, parents, please check the sources of information you receive on the Internet when it comes to decisions about your children’s health. Their safety is too important to base off of an e-mail your great-grandmother forwarded you from a neighbor of a Bingo club friend. The best place to go for information from the pediatric specialists at Children’s Medical Center is our official Web site, childrens.com.

‘Sims’ allow medical training in real-life, real-time emergencies

“Sims” may have started with a computer family living the life you programmed for them, but it has since spread far and wide as a training concept. You may have seen medical simulation training labs on "Grey's Anatomy" where the television doctors train by using models for surgery.

Now, imagine that you’re a real doctor racing to save a dying baby. The infant is having difficulty breathing; bells and alarms are going off; and you may have to intubate. Seconds tick off as the child’s condition deteriorates, and the stress level is high.

Medical personnel can experience that sense of urgency using computer-controlled, interactive, life-size mannequins that simulate medical emergencies and function in real-time. That’s the beauty of the state-of-the-art high-fidelity simulators (sims) available at Children’s Medical Center.

The sim lab is the only one of its kind in North Texas for a pediatric hospital, making it just one more way Children’s provides unmatched expertise in pediatric healthcare.

Highly realistic, mobile sim baby, sim man and the pedi sim are the mainstays of the high-tech simulation center. The 3,000-square-foot simulation lab houses two team training rooms that recreate Intensive Care Unit and inpatient settings. The rooms, which have a separate control center, are equipped with the sims hooked up to computers, medical monitors and audiovisual equipment so the scenarios can be played back for training purposes. The center features computer stations with emergency scenarios programmed in, as well as virtual IV trainers.

In addition to the basic life support equipment, there are skill stations with task training simulators for IV starts, chest tubes and other medical procedures, as well as classrooms for debriefings after computer simulations.

The center also manages three Basic Life Support (BLS) mannequins so medical personnel can certify or re-certify in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

An issue bigger than sports for athletes

Football is on a lot of our minds today. In Dallas, most of us are disgusted that the Cowboys only scored 3 points against the Vikings and that Favre (from Mississippi like moi) tossed his fourth touchdown with less than two minutes left in a game that was well-past competitive. I don’t really care that much about the games played this weekend, though. I am a Chicago Bears fan, which means I’m usually done cheering for NFL games long before the playoffs come around.
However, a piece of football news that did catch my attention this weekend was that Gaines Adams, a newly-acquired defensive end for my beloved Bears, died of cardiac arrest on Sunday at a hospital in South Carolina. If you ever saw pictures or video of the guy, you would be a little shocked that he died of a heart attack. He was built like a Greek god – 6’5” and 258 lbs. of granite – not like “Refrigerator” Perry. And he was only 26. But, evidently, heart problems don’t just affect the old and obese. They affect the young and seemingly healthy, too.
If you’ve been a sports fan for a while, you’ll remember the names of Reggie Lewis and Hank Gathers. Both were world-class, long, lean basketball stars when they suddenly died of heart issues playing the game they loved. Lewis was 27. Gathers was 23. Just last week, Southern Indiana basketball player Jeron Lewis collapsed in the middle of a game and died from heart complications. He was 21.

Doctors at Children's working on prevention
Stories like those initially make me feel helpless – like the sky is falling and I can’t even lift my arms to slow it down. Then I remember that – fortunately for us all – I am not a doctor, and people like Drs. William Scott and Ilana Zeltser, pediatric cardiologists in The Heart Center at Children’s, are. Instead of acting passive and defeated, they are participating in a research study to identify children who may be at-risk for sudden death episodes.
Sudden death episodes primarily occur in apparently healthy children during a time of strenuous physical exertion, and are most often attributed to previously undiagnosed cardiac diseases. Children’s is one of three institutions leading a state-wide cardiac research study to address the need for a pre-sports screening program in Texas so heart problems in young athletes can be identified before it’s too late.
Over the course of a year through this study, 15,000 student athletes received an electrocardiagram — a test measuring the electrical activity of the heart. Dr. Scott, professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern, and Dr. Zeltser, assistant professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern, are examining the electrocardiograms.
“Our goal is to establish new standards for normal electrocardiogram values in the adolescent athlete,” Dr. Zeltser said. “We are focusing on the degree to which gender, race and body mass index affect the interpretations. We hope to increase the sensitivity and specificity of the electrocardiogram as a screening tool for sudden death in young athletes.”

New warnings about an old problem: toxic chemicals in toys

New reports indicate there may be another safety hazard concerning toys manufactured in China. The issue this time is the presence of cadmium, a highly toxic heavy metal which has been found in high levels in some cheap metal jewelry.

Like lead, cadmium can hinder brain development in children and even cause cancer, according to recent research.

The danger has prompted the head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission to issue a warning advising parents to take cheap metal jewelry away from children.

Over the past couple of years, a number of toy recalls due to high levels of lead have received a lot of media attention. Toxicologists at Children’s, however, explained that the actual risk of harm was relatively small.

Still, parents should know that swallowing, sucking on or chewing a metal charm or necklace could result in exposure to lead, cadmium or other heavy metals.

The first thing parents can do is check recalls listed on the CPSC Web site. If you see any of your children's toys on the list, get rid of them. If you are still concerned about cadmium exposure, talk to your pediatrician.

For more information, Children’s has a page about poisonings and even features a list of links to other resources on the Web.

Learn More
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Toy Safety Shopping Tips from the CPSC