Texas Children’s is Big and Bright!
Texas Children’s has always striven to innovate new ideas and improve the well being of children not just in our hospital, but around the world! Here are some of the innovating and exciting stories from Texas Children’s Hospital.
We gave the first child in the U.S. an VAD implant designed just for kids!
If you are wondering what a VAD is, it stands for Ventricular assist devices. It is used mostly in adults with heart failure who are waiting to receive a new heart. It can be used to save the youngest and most complex heart failure cases in children. Texas Children’s has been at the forefront of this research to implant a child with a Jarvik 2015, which is the size of a single AA battery. On Oct 2018, Katlen Hickman became the first pediatric patient in the U.S. and only second in the world to receive a Jarvik 2015 implant! Since then she has successfully become strong enough to be bridged to our transplant team!
Texas Children’s Performs 200th lung transplant!
In July of 2018, Texas Children’s performed its 200th lung transplant. A 12 year old cystic fibrosis patient was provided a new set of lungs and a new chance at life. Our transplant program is one of only two institutions world-wide performing over 10 pediatric lung transplants per year!
