by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 13, 2010
by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 12, 2010
by Michael Agus, MD – director of Children’s Medicine Critical Care Program
Day 4
The day started with a proud smile and high five from the HUEH resident who wryly bragged, “I told you I wouldn’t need all that airway equipment.” The child had been safely transported and the surgeon had successfully removed the pebble from her trachea.
The routine has begun to set in at this point, but admissions were few on this Sunday. The weather, which had until now been in the 70s with scattered rain, hit the 80s with strong sun. With this change, the temperature in the interior of the medical tents rose to above 100F with extremely high humidity. Slight fevers are no longer clinically significant, standard intravenous fluid calculations no longer apply. Thanks to the NGOs, drinking water is plentiful and those patients, who are capable, work hard to maintain adequate hydration. The rest are dependent upon IVs or attentive family members to keep them hydrated. [click to continue…]
by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 12, 2010
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last time, he discussed if what goes on in the brain during a 3D movie.
Here’s this week’s question:
Q: The previews for the new Disney movie Alice in Wonderland seem a little scary (particularly the music and goth costuming/make-up). However, the movie is rated PG. Is it too scary for children ages 5-10? What age do you think is old enough to see this film? Any other comments for parents considering taking their kids to see this film?
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What about Alice? from
JustAsk.com [click to continue…]
by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 11, 2010
by Michael Agus, MD - director of Children’s Medicine Critical Care Program
A few weeks ago, multiple waves of teams from Children’s Hospital Boston left under the auspices of Project Hope for the USNS Comfort, which remains anchored in the harbor of Port-au-Prince. As Comfort’s mission began winding down, Robert Truog, MD was able to transfer and join a land-based effort already underway through Partners In Health (PIH). I was scheduled for the Comfort as well and due to Bob’s efforts was able to re-deploy to the same site right after he left.
Day 1
I boarded a plane early in the morning on Thursday, March 4 from Boston to Miami. In addition to a large pile of energy bars, mosquito netting and a camping pillow, I brought donations from my kids’ school, including stuffed animals and drawing pads from my 1st grader’s class.
The front page of The Boston Globe the prior day had pictured Cardinal O’Malley visiting sick children in a tent at a Catholic hospital in Haiti – St. Francois de Sales. I was able to use the picture to show my 3 sons (ages 13, 10 and 6) where I would be the following day. In the airport in Miami, I ran into the Cardinal and we discussed his and my trips. He expressed continued amazement at what he described as the worst human disaster of our time. [click to continue…]
by Kristin Cantu on March 11, 2010
Ray Tye with Children's patient, Omar
Ray Tye, a successful businessman turned noted children’s philanthropist, died yesterday morning at the age of 87. Tye was devoted to helping children in medical need.
Tye helped numerous patients receive care at Children’s Hospital Boston, many coming from all over the world. Fernanda Medeiros, manager of the International Center at Children’s, worked side-by-side with Tye to help children from foreign countries receive life-saving treatments. “The world has lost a great, great man,” Medeiros tells The Boston Herald.
One of the many patients whose care he helped pay for is Omar, who was badly injured while traveling to Baghdad. He needed extensive reconstructive surgery and the Ray Tye Medical Foundation donated $100,000 to help cover medical expenses. Tye also lobbied on behalf of Omar and his family to receive political asylum in the United States, which they were recently granted.
Dumanel Luxama, a boy from Haiti with a rare congenital facial malformation, was another child Tye helped. You can read Dumanel’s story and watch a video about him here.
Tye’s generous spirit will be remembered by many, especially those of us here at Children’s. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.
by Kristin Cantu on March 11, 2010
Thrive would like to congratulate Children’s Hospital Boston’s Facebook fan page for reaching more than 100,000 fans. That’s almost enough people to fill up Fenway Park three times!
To celebrate, we’d like to share some of the most popular posts on Children’s Facebook fan page with you.
If you’re not one already, become a Children’s Facebook fan today!
by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 10, 2010
An amazing new software program developed by Gil Alterovitz, PhD, a research fellow in the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program, that turns gene and protein expression data into music, could help doctors hear whether their patients’ health has taken a turn for the worse.
WBUR recently did a story on the new software. “We felt that music, in some sense, can serve as a translator,” Alterovitz said in the piece. “There’s more and more information presented, so…we need a way to present it to the brain…in a way that it can handle it.”
We recently did a story on Alterovitz’s work in Vector, our research magazine, and Technology Review did a cool audio/video presentation that compared the sounds of sickness to the sounds of health.
by Children's Hospital Boston staff on March 10, 2010
The Tafts have turned Erica's gluten-free diet into a family affair.
by Tara Taft
Although my husband called her “Smiley,” our happy baby, Erica, was clingy and cranky. For two months, we cleaned up after our 22-month-old as she vomited every day and watched in growing alarm as her tummy grew more and more distended, while her arm and leg muscles atrophied. Her pediatrician thought she had a virus, but she wasn’t getting any better. After four weeks, he referred us to Children’s Hospital Boston, where her gastrointestinal doctor suspected celiac disease. [click to continue…]
Other stories we’ve been reading:
