Summer 2018 Edition

The pressure on medical professionals in a busy emergency room is all the more intense when the patient is a child and medications are required immediately. That is why Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital – a Level I trauma center equipped to treat children in the most difficult situations – is a leader in adopting the best processes available. The hospital has trained its professionals in the use of a new system that eliminates the need for physicians and nurses to complete mathematical calculations on the fly when determining drugs and dosages that should be administered to pediatric patients.

Whole blood transfusions are making a comeback—and that’s great news for those treated for hemorrhagic shock and the people who take care of them. “Overall, we have seen that whole blood transfusion is safe and has a better clotting ability and profile than component therapy in many instances,” said Bryan Cotton, MD, a professor in the Department of Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and trauma surgeon affiliated with Red Duke Trauma Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.

Residents of Fort Bend and surrounding counties now have greater access to lifesaving stroke care. Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers. As a certified Primary Stroke Center, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital is equipped to rapidly diagnose and treat stroke victims.

United States Army Sergeant First Class Nick Laye arrived at the Memorial Hermann Red Duke Trauma Institute with extensive limb-threatening injuries to his right leg. The list of injuries was long: a segmental femur fracture, open tibial plateau fracture, proximal fibula fracture, peroneal nerve injury, significant circumferential loss of flesh and other soft tissue from the lower thigh to mid-leg, and soft-tissue degloving of the ankle that exposed his ankle bone. He had lost one artery supplying his right leg and had a large open wound above the left knee.

Every day, more than 115 people in the U.S. die from opioid overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse in the U.S. is nearly $80 billion a year, including the costs of health care, lost productivity, addiction treatment and criminal justice involvement. Memorial Hermann is at the forefront of a growing number of health care systems across the country that are managing trauma patients’ pain without – or with minimal use of – opioids.

Gastroenterologist L. Henry Pham, MD, was standing in a sheltered area of the Gulf of Mexico when a wave toppled him over, causing hyperextension of his neck resulting in disc herniation and cervical spinal cord contusion at C5, C6 and C7. The injury caused immediate tetraplegia. His wife, Phyllis, saw him floating face down, motionless, and alerted a lifeguard who pulled him out. "I was conscious throughout and knew something bad had happened to my spinal cord,” says Dr. Pham. “I asked a family friend to protect my head and neck. My son, Andrew, was there, looking down at me on the stretcher while the EMTs carried me a quarter of a mile to the ambulance.”