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.

A delayed flu season in North Texas

It's common knowledge in the medical community that viruses like the flu mutate and adapt to maneuver around the latest immunizations. In fact, that's the reason we have to get flu shots every year - because the strains of the flu we were immunized against in prior years have evolved and require us to develop new vaccines for them.

But even as ingenious as mutation is, it may not be as tricky as what the flu did over the past several months in North Texas. You see, the typical peak of the flu season is in January and February here. But not this year. North Texas had an extremely mild amount of flu cases in the first couple of months of 2012.

That lulled most of us into thinking that we were just going to have a flu-less year. However, as you'll learn from our infectious disease expert Dr. Jeffrey Kahn in the WFAA news clip below, the flu just faked us out. There has been a significant increase in flu cases over the last several weeks, which implies that we're just now entering the throes of "flu season."

So, if you haven't had your child vaccinated against the flu yet, it's still a good idea.

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.

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.

Children's in the News

Children's is regularly featured in the news for a variety of reasons, and we had a few stories come out this week that we wanted to share.

Transplant patient on Today Show tomorrow
Lyndon Baty has been a patient at Children's since he was 3. The 15-year-old from Knox City, Texas, spent nearly all of last summer here after his body showed signs of rejecting the kidney transplant he received here in 2003.
The Nephrology staff at Children's was able to stabilize Lyndon's condition, but his immune system was so compromised that he couldn't go to school this year. This was especially troubling for Lyndon because - as his mom, Sheri, says - "he loves the spotlight."
"Lyndon loves being around his friends," Sheri said. "He has really missed that. The illness and dealing with rejection has been really difficult, but I think what has been most difficult on him is missing out on the social interaction."
But that all changed at the beginning of this semester when Lyndon's school district was able to arrange for Lyndon to remotely attend school through a robot - as shown in the video at the bottom of this Huffington Post article.
"He still can't go to school with his friends physically, but this little robot has provided such an amazing outlet for him," Sheri said. "Since then, his appetite has been better. He's been more upbeat. It's been amazing to see the difference."
News outlets across the country have picked up on Lyndon's story, and he will even be featured on The Today Show on NBC at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. Watch his interview if you get the chance!

Stroke study making national headlines
Nearly 2,000 news outlets have recently featured new critical stroke initiatives that were launched at Children's to diagnose and treat strokes in children.
Pediatric stroke is a little-known condition that occurs as often as leukemia and brain tumors but often is not recognized by parents or physicians, despite the serious short- and long-term health consequences. As part of this effort, Children’s plans to start one of four research sites in North America participating in this groundbreaking research.
“Pediatric stroke research is in its infancy,” said Dr. Michael Dowling, medical director of Children’s Pediatric Stroke Program. “We’ve simply got to find out why children suffer strokes.”
You can read more about the initiative in this Boston Globe online article.

CCBD patient inspiring others
Fourteen-year-old Payton Agnew loves to make jewelry and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Last June, Payton underwent a bone marrow transplant at Children’s to treat T-cell lymphoma and is currently in the intensive care unit battling her disease.
Learn how Payton has inspired her entire elementary school to join in her effort to fight cancer in this WFAA news clip that ran this week.