{"id":581,"date":"2015-09-05T19:07:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/?p=581"},"modified":"2015-09-29T15:59:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T15:59:38","slug":"texas-childrens-hospital-special-ebola-center-just-for-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/2015\/09\/05\/texas-childrens-hospital-special-ebola-center-just-for-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"At Texas Children’s Hospital, An Ebola Treatment Center Just For Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola, the federal government designated 55 hospitals nationwide as Ebola treatment centers. Two are in Texas: The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston<\/a> and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston<\/a>. Texas Children’s is designing an isolation unit specifically for kids.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

At the Texas Children’s campus in Katy, workers are building an entirely new unit, with one wing designed for highly infectious diseases.<\/p>\n

Dr. Judith Campbell handles infection control at Texas Children’s. She helped design the isolation unit, which has eight beds behind locked doors.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.

Dr. Judith Campbell explains how a pass-through window will save time in the biocontainment unit under construction at Texas Children’s Hospital. Nurses can deliver supplies and medications to a patient room without having to put on or remove their protective outfits and hoods. Photo\/Carrie Feibel<\/p><\/div>\n

“A year ago in the United States, there were only 12\u00a0beds for the entire country for patients that had a need to be isolated in a biocontainment unit,” Campbell said. “And, not surprisingly, zero of those beds were designated for children.”<\/p>\n

Each of the eight patient rooms has an antechamber, where doctors and nurses will put on protective gear, gloves and ventilated hoods.<\/p>\n

After treating the child, they will leave through a separate door and enter a third room, where they strip the equipment off.<\/p>\n

The whole time, nurses will observe through large glass windows.<\/p>\n

“So if there’s any question they can say ‘Wait, stop. You need to clean your hands again.’ Or ‘Wait, stop. Let’s take this glove off more carefully,'” Campbell said.<\/p>\n

“A year ago in the United States, there were only 12\u00a0beds for the entire country for patients that had a need to be isolated in a biocontainment unit. And, not surprisingly, zero of those beds were designated for children.”
Dr. Judith Campbell with Texas Children's Hospital<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>\n
\"Workers

Workers finish construction on an eight-bed isolation unit at Texas Children’s Hospital. Photo\/Carrie Feibel<\/p><\/div>\n

A Unit Equipped For Much More Than Ebola<\/h4>\n

The unit has its own lab, so infected blood samples never have to be carried to other parts of the hospital. And there’s a separate trash room, where carts full of medical waste can be treated inside six-foot sterilization chambers. There’s a locker room, too. After every shift, medical workers will shower before leaving the unit.<\/p>\n

While Ebola was the catalyst, the unit is designed for any globe-trotting superbug.<\/p>\n

“These rooms are equipped to take care of TB, MERS, pandemic influenza, bird flu and even a pathogen that we might not know what it is yet,” said Dr. Amy Arrington, an intensive care pediatrician, who helped design the unit.<\/p>\n

\"Workers

The high-tech unit will treat children with highly infectious diseases, including Ebola, MERS, and flu. Photo\/Carrie Feibel<\/p><\/div>\n

From iPads to dolls, helping sick kids<\/h4>\n

Training is key, hospital officials say.<\/p>\n

“When you put three pairs of gloves on, you lose sensation in your hands because they’re so tight,” Arrington said. “But you really lose that tactile feel that [for] physicians and nurses is really important in taking care of any patient, let alone a child.”<\/p>\n

Yes, a child: sick and possibly frightened, whose parents probably won’t be allowed inside the room.<\/p>\n

To fight that isolation, Campbell said the kids will use iPads and video chat to talk with their families.<\/p>\n

The hospital is also creating a therapeutic teaching doll, one that will wear the same biocontainment suit as the doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n

“So that when the healthcare providers come in, they understand that ‘yes, we’re dressed up a little differently but that their little doll has similar attire on,'” Campbell said.<\/p>\n

The pediatric isolation unit will open in late October.<\/p>\n

“These rooms are equipped to take care of TB, MERS, pandemic influenza, bird flu and even a pathogen that we might not know what it is yet.”
Dr. Amy Arrington, who helped design the unit<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola, the federal government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-surviving-ebola","post_format-post-format-audio","byline-carrie-feibel","byline-houston-public-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":610,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/surviving-ebola\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}