What to look for in Episode 7

Let's be honest. Every episode ending in a cliffhanger makes us all anxious.

We want to know how these patients who we've come to know and care for turn out. Moreover, we want to know that those patients turn out well. Well, we'll get our wish this Saturday on the series finale.

How has Rylynn been since receiving her heart transplant (hint: that's her with her parents in the picture above)? What does Taylor's nose look like following reconstructive surgery? Is baby Dakayta healthy after surgery to repair her spina bifida? What about the Kirby twins? How are their parents handling one being at the hospital while they have to be with the other one at home?

And what about that nice neurosurgeon with the long hair? What's his home life like?

This episode will answer all of those questions. We'll also give you a chance to see all of the physicians from Season 1 again.

So, please watch at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday on WFAA. In my humble and unbiased opinion, I think it's our best episode yet.

What to look for in Episode 6

This Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on WFAA, you'll get to see some of the hardest and sweetest issues that parents of Children's patients face. Episode 6 of Children's Med Dallas picks up the stories of two families in the NICU who were introduced in Episode 5.

You'll get to see how newborn Dakayta fares following surgery to treat her spina bifida. And you'll get to see how her parents process the bittersweet emotions of having a new baby who is facing significant health obstacles.

The other parents in the episode also have to deal with mixed emotions. Their 23-week-old twins, Kennedy and Audrey - both born 17 weeks early, are progressing at different rates. One will be discharged while one will have to stay behind a little longer.

Spoiler alert: both cases will warrant some Kleenexes, but both will also inspire you.

The episode isn't all serious, though. We'll also take you away from the hospital with one of our physicians who was willing to dress up like Dumbledore at his daughter's Harry Potter-themed surprise birthday party.

What to look for in Episode 5

Episode 5 of Children’s Med Dallas focuses on the youngest and smallest patients at Children’s – the ones who occupy our neonatal intensive care unit or NICU. You’ll get to see three families who entrust their babies’ lives to our staff, believing that the “Level 3C” NICU accreditation means the most delicate and complex cases can be figured out and rescued here.

Drs. Rashmin Savani and James Moore, the medical directors of the NICU, will be shown caring for the patients and counseling their parents. Viewers will also get to see Dr. Savani interact with his own family at home, including teaching his teenage son how to drive.

The first patient shown will be newborn Dakayta, who was introduced at the end of Episode 4. Dakayta was born with spina bifida and needs immediate surgery to enclose her spine. Dr. Dale Swift, a Children’s neurosurgeon, is introduced in Episode 5 as he’s called in to correct Dakayta’s condition.

Three new patients will also be introduced: 9-month-old Zoe and 23-week-old twins Kennedy and Audrey. Zoe is experiencing mysterious episodes of breathlessness. Kennedy and Audrey came to Children’s from Longview after being born 17 weeks early at 15 ounces and 19 ounces respectively.

So, please watch at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 31, on WFAA Channel 8 or afterward on our Facebook page to see how the Children’s staff tries to rescue these babies who won’t survive without medical intervention.

What to look for in Episode 4

So, you need a reason to return to your TVs and/or computers to watch the next episode of Children’s Med Dallas at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday on WFAA-Channel 8? Well, we have plenty.

For starters, you’ll get to see the conclusion of 3-year-old Nathan Chase’s story. The last thing you saw in Episode 3 was Nathan being examined by Dr. Pam Okada in the Emergency Department. He had fallen down a stairwell at home and landed on his head. His skull looked like it had a fracture and a hematoma, and it was uncertain if he would need surgery. Episode 4 also shows how the Emergency staff responded to a baby involved in a car accident that made her car seat wind up like this.

Another reason to watch is that you’ll get to see our Level 3C Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). What does “Level 3C” mean? It means that our NICU can respond to the most acute and complex conditions. The leaders of the NICU, Drs. Rashmin Savani and James Moore, are shown responding to several of our tiniest patients, including newborn Dakayta Givens, who was born with spina bifida.

Lastly, Dr. Okada will be shown away from the hospital. While you know from Episode 3 that she’s a high-intensity, super-sharp Emergency physician, you probably didn’t know that she was a mother of five. And I’m willing to bet you didn’t know she boxed in her free time. Well, you’ll get to see both of those aspects of her this weekend.

So, please make sure to watch live/DVR/watch on our Facebook page as we reveal more of Children’s and our amazing staff and patients this weekend. Remember: 6:30 p.m. on Saturday on WFAA-Channel 8.

'Rylynn made me a better nurse'

Katie Mikeworth, RN, cared for 2-year-old Rylynn Riojas while the toddler waited for a new heart. Katie's shifts with Rylynn were not only medically focused. Katie and Rylynn spent time painting nails, playing with dolls and bonding over all things girly. Read Katie's blog about their times spent together and how one little girl changed Katie's perspective on nursing...and life.

Nursing is not a glamorous job. It involves masks and gowns, diapers and throw-up, and many other not-so-glamorous things. So, receiving a manicure within the first hour on-the-clock was beyond a glamorous treat for me. No, it was not Nurses' Week, nor was it a surprise from my manager. This special manicure was a surprise insisted upon by my patient, Rylynn Riojas.

Rylynn is a 2-year-old little girl I had the pleasure of caring for last year in the cardiac intensive care unit at Children's. My very first shift with Rylynn was the night she came back from the operating room after the implantation of a Berlin Heart. I joined Rylynn's care team in the cardiac ICU after a few shifts taking care of her last summer, and I was part of her care team until she was discharged with a new heart to the cardiology floor. She instantly touched my heart, and it's not rocket science (or heart surgery!) to figure out why. Rylynn took a while to warm up to me, but after a couple of weeks...we were pals. I always looked forward to work, hoping that I'd be her nurse. Rylynn's personality is - in one word - fun. Did I always get to take care of the fun, happy, smiley Rylynn? No, but that's the case with any toddler. There were some really tough shifts, there were some really busy shifts, but mostly there were the shifts where everything went smoothly and Ry was awesome.

Coming into work and getting a sparkly rainbow manicure from Ry sitting at her Dora the Explorer table was a highlight of my time with her. We played with Play-Doh, watched Dora and other cartoons, played with her stuffed puppy and baby dolls, and colored pictures a lot. There was even one time when I was convinced by this 2-year-old's laughter to dance with her stuffed giraffe - that was my height. I couldn't help myself; hearing Ry giggle after she had gone through so much was just the best. So, I danced.

Joining Rylynn's care team impacted me more than I thought it would. A care team isn't just for the patient; it's for the family as well (and, as it turns out, the nurses benefit, too). The Riojas family is warm and caring, silly and friendly, but most importantly, they are genuine. Not only did I become a better nurse while caring for Ry, but I feel like I grew as a person from being around her family. Taking care of Ry and her family for four months was more than a positive experience for me. Rylynn's parents fought hard every day for her and supported each other, never losing hope and always staying positive. This is the attitude I want to have every day for my patients and their families: an attitude of hard work and selfless giving with complete faith in miracles.

So, I said before that nursing isn't a glamorous job, but maybe I was totally wrong. Miracles are pretty glamorous, and as a nurse, I got to be part of one.

Clowning around at Children's

Crystal Goss is a senior communications specialist at Children's. This blog is her account of a day spent with the Funnyatrics clowns.


I knew the clowns from the Children’s Funnyatrics Program were going to be funny. I mean, they are clowns.

We asked them to hang out with us for a behind-the-scenes photo and video shoot for the second season of the hospital’s documentary Children’s Med Dallas. As expected, they were FUNNY. So funny. Our group – consisting of a videographer, creative director, support staff and photographers – were all in stitches laughing at their goofy antics and general silliness, from kazoo-playing to dancing. One of the products of that silliness was an impromptu song about Children’s Med Dallas, which you can watch below.



The thing I didn’t expect though was the heart that our clowns would bring to the shoot, the heart they bring to their work every day. Beyond the silly, our clowns are really all about healing by the power of laughter. And they love working with our patients and staff. Take a look for yourself at the funny and serious moments during our shoot with these clever and compassionate clowns.



Catch the clowns' cameo on Children’s Med Dallas at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday on WFAA Channel 8.

A new perspective and a new season of Children's Med Dallas

I began working on Season 2 of Children’s Med Dallas about a month after the birth of my first child, a daughter named Emerson who’s usually called Emmy.

Emmy had already changed a lot in my life, namely my sleeping, eating, thinking, TV watching. Etcetera. (See the change represented in my face in this photo ------->)

But she hadn’t changed my work yet.

As a story producer on the show, my job is literally to produce stories. A lot of times that means talking with physicians about cases they’re working on, what they do away from the hospital and how we can film those things. That part didn’t change after Emmy was born.

Another part of story producing, though, is asking patients and their families about their stories. Emmy affected that substantially. Instead of approaching parents as a mere representative of Children’s, I had to approach them as a fellow parent.

Bluntly: That made my job painful, especially in the emergency department – a new area that we’re covering this season. Every baby that came in with breathing problems or seizures or worse made me imagine Emmy in their position. Then it would occur to me that their parents were actually dealing with the reality of having a baby needing rescue. And I would feel like a jerk for approaching them.

But, to my surprise, the parents usually got what the show is about in those moments better than I did. When I felt intrusive, they felt the poignancy of their situation and the expertise of the team caring for their child. More often than not, they responded to my request to film them by saying, “I want other parents to be aware” or “I want to help the hospital”.

We hope this season fulfills their hopes by raising awareness of both pediatric health/injury issues and the tremendous staff at Children’s who treat those issues. The first episode will air at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 3, on WFAA Channel 8. And there will be six more 30-minute episodes following that premiere, each also airing at 6:30 p.m. on consecutive Saturdays on WFAA.

In addition to showing you our emergency department, we’ll show you what real-life brain surgeons do. And you’ll see how our caretakers handle some of the most critical and delicate patients in the neonatal ICU and the stem cell transplant unit like Sophia Tilley, a 14-year-old girl from Arkansas who needed new bone marrow to battle her leukemia.

The first episode will pick up where last season left off with the case of Rylynn Riojas, a 2-year-old girl who was in dire need of a heart transplant. You’ll see how Dr. Kristine Guleserian and the rest of the heart team continued to fight for Rylynn’s life when the odds of her receiving a transplant were minute. We’ll also reintroduce you to plastic surgeon Dr. Alex Kane later on this season as he works to create a nostril out of forehead skin for a teenage boy.

However, even though some of the same characters will be featured, this season will be different than the first – for me, at least.

I’ll be watching through a parent’s eyes for the first time.