Just a few years earlier, orphan trains rumbled through Texas towns, carrying vulnerable children westward seeking new homes and opportunities. In Fort Worth, amidst the challenges of a growing frontier town, individuals and families opened their hearts and homes to these children. Some specifically chose to take in the sickest among them, the ones with special needs, or those whom others might have overlooked. It was a poignant time in the nation’s history, but that legacy of compassion would soon inspire a new kind of home for vulnerable children—a place devoted to healing and to a Promise to improve the health and well-being of all children in its care and communities.

A lot has changed in a century. Orphan trains are a thing of the past, replaced with child welfare services that aim to keep children safe and families together if possible. Camp Bowie is now a boulevard bridging history and commerce; the Stockyards are an entertainment hotspot showcasing cowboy culture; and Fort Worth’s population is nearing 1 million, making it the 12th largest city in the country.

But one thing remains the same. The spirit of embracing the vulnerable and offering hope to those most in need still runs deep in the heart of this community. Through all of Cowtown’s transformations, Cook Children’s has risen to meet the needs of the moment—expanding its campus, evolving its technological capabilities, and adding services to improve the health and well-being of all children in its care.

Today, Cook Children’s begins a new chapter in its 107-year history of hope and healing by breaking ground on the site that will soon see the rise of a new 760,000-square-foot patient care tower, currently referred to as the West Tower.

“About 59 people move to this area every day,” said Stan Davis, president of Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth. “To keep pace with this unprecedented growth, we must also expand. This isn't just about getting bigger. It's about ensuring we can continue to be that steadfast home for every child who needs us. It's about equipping our exceptional doctors and nurses with the leading-edge tools they need, providing a comforting space for our tiniest patients, and offering a sanctuary for our sickest children.”

Expanding the Blue Peaks
The addition of the West Tower will enhance Cook Children’s Heart Center, already home to the nation’s top pediatric cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons. The growth, which includes two new dedicated cardiovascular operating rooms, paves the way for Cook Children’s surgeons to perform life-saving heart transplants.

The West Tower also makes way for the expansion and redesign of Cook Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Designs for the new PICU focus on two key elements for supporting healing and improving the patient and family experience—sunlight and privacy.

Over the past decade, studies have shown that a lack of natural light and loud environment can increase the risk for what doctors call ICU delirium, according to Kyle Brown, M.D., PICU co-medical director. It is a common occurrence in intensive care settings, especially those like Cook Children’s current 20-year-old PICU where there are few private rooms and natural light is hard to find.

“Some kids that come into the ICU after a serious injury are thinking clearly and know 100% where they are and who their family is. Mentally, they are their usual selves,” said Linda Thompson, M.D., co-medical director of Cook Children’s PICU. “Then, with a few days of not sleeping well, with pain medicine on top of that, and being stuck in bed, they can start to get confused. They don’t recognize people as well and they can start to see things that aren’t there. This is considered ICU delirium.”

One Patient’s Experience
For former PICU patient Emerson Bellucci, it only took 24 hours for the delirium to set in.

In 2024, Emerson spent 36 days in Cook Children’s PICU following a rare and life-threatening allergic reaction to the common antibiotic Bactrim. The reaction damaged her lungs so severely she required life-support via extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO. It is the most advanced form of life support available. Essentially, an external artificial lung. A pioneer in her own right, Emerson was one of very few patients to remain awake and even walk around while on ECMO. Most are fully sedated during this life-supporting treatment.

In the initial days of Emerson’s PICU stay, she and her family shared space with 42 others healing from severe and traumatic injuries and illnesses. In her case, Emerson was separated from neighboring patients only by a curtain. The sights and sounds of every other patient’s monitors, machines, televisions, and even the cries of an infant patient, often interrupted her sleep and added to her own anxiety about her illness. The lack of natural light caused her to confuse her days and nights.

“There were no windows to notice it was night and we were supposed to be sleeping,” said Ashlee Bellucci, Emerson’s mom. “I think that was the beginning of her delirium that really set her pattern to where she was up a lot at night. As a mom, you’re up with her, too. So it was hard.” 

Despite the best efforts of Cook Children’s PICU staff to institute daytime quiet hours for napping, simulate nighttime hours with low light settings, and minimize disruption while caring for a neighboring patient, the scenario described by Dr. Thompson and experienced by Emerson happens over and over again.

“When we have increased delirium, that increases the length of time that patients spend in the ICU and the length of time that they spend in the hospital,” Dr. Brown said. “It also leads to what we now call post-intensive care syndrome, which is something that both patients and families can experience after they leave the ICU. This includes things like PTSD and anxiety.”

Once Emerson was placed on ECMO, she was moved to a more private, enclosed space in the current PICU. While it had a small window that helped regulate her sleep, it did not have a private bathroom. Emerson’s parents still had to trek to the family waiting area for showers and restroom breaks.

“Having to walk down the halls in my pajamas to the bathroom was very inconvenient,” Ashlee said. “But I think one of the hardest things was shower time. Her dad and I had to plan showers around when doctors would be visiting so that we could be sure one of us was there. I felt like a college kid in a dorm taking all my things, and having to go down and sometimes wait for a shower. Inevitably, you would forget something.”

The design of the new PICU aims to change that.

“Instead of making families feel like they're coming into our place, we need a way to make it feel more like home for them and more like we're actually entering their space,” Dr. Brown said. “That's really what creates a more healing environment for the patient and family,” Dr. Brown said.

Hope Lights the Way
In the redesigned PICU, every patient will have a fully enclosed private room with a window, as well as a private bathroom. A sliding glass door with a curtain for privacy will shield patients from the sights and sounds of their neighbors’ care and machines, while allowing the medical team to keep a close eye on their patients. Quiet sleep will go uninterrupted by the commotion of a middle-of-the-night admission of a new neighboring patient. Parents and young patients can focus on their own healing without the added trauma of witnessing the circumstances of others. When the sun rises, patient rooms will be drenched with natural light, awakening their souls to the hope of a new day.

“I think the first time I noticed the little window it just reminded me of outside and that I won't be stuck here forever,” Emerson said about the more private ICU space she was moved to while on ECMO. “Having a window definitely increased your mood. Having sunlight is just like a happy thing.”

New Frontiers
The West Tower will be a place where Cook Children’s charts new frontiers in medical research, ensuring that every step forward in patient care is informed by the rigorous pursuit of knowledge. While Cook Children’s already has 300 open clinical trials, as well as 500 ongoing studies, the expansion of services like Cardiology and Pediatric Intensive Care opens new doors for even more research that advances medicine and shapes the quality of care.

Take cancer treatment, for example. Over the past 50 years, research-driven protocols have decreased the five-year mortality for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia—the most common pediatric cancer— from 80% to 5%, according to a 2021 article published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

“The centers that do research have higher, better quality numbers than the centers that don’t," said William Stigall, M.D., Cook Children’s chief research officer. “Research is one of those things that make you better at everything, and the robust space and technological capacity of the new tower will give us the capacity to do even more.”

Design Through the Eyes of Others
Planning and design of the West Tower is a collaborative effort between staff, patients and the design and construction teams.

“We have thought long and hard about what is important to us and our patients,” said Melodie Davis, DNP, RN, CENP, Director of PICU, ECMO and Dialysis at Cook Children’s. “For several months we have gathered input from our team and our patients. Bringing together evidence from literature on how PICUs can create healing environments with our lived experiences and collaborating with the construction team is truly a dream come true. Our patients, their families, and our staff have so much to look forward to.”

Today, Emerson and her family joined Cook Children’s executives, members of the board of directors, city officials and community supporters to turn the first shovels of dirt on the site of the future West Tower. Construction is expected to take five years.

“This groundbreaking of the West Tower is not just the laying of concrete and steel. It is a powerful continuation of the pioneering spirit,” said Rick Merrill, president and CEO of Cook Children’s Health Care System. “It is a tangible manifestation of our enduring commitment to the future, a bold step driven by the same courage and vision that defined Fort Worth from its earliest days.”

Fast Facts

• The West Tower will seamlessly integrate with the existing medical center floor by floor.
• The services/units moving to the West Tower will make way for the expansion of Hematology/Oncology as well as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which will grow from 106 beds to 143.
• The Heart Center will gain two new operating rooms, a third cardiac catheterization laboratory for advanced diagnostics and interventions, 14 additional cardiovascular intensive care beds, as well as a new Step-down Unit for transitioning care as heart patients heal. All Heart Center inpatient services will be conveniently located on one floor in the new tower, from procedure prep spaces, to operating rooms and special procedure areas, to the Cardiovascular ICU and Step-down Unit.
• In addition to the Cardiovascular Operating Rooms, the West Tower will house eight new operating rooms. Two will be specifically equipped for Orthopedic surgery and two for Neurosurgery.
• The redesigned PICU will feature 56 private patient rooms with private bathrooms.
• Anticipating future growth, shell space will be included in the build.

It’s not every day that you see a patient on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) walking around the halls of the hospital or taking a turn outside in a wheelchair. Children on this life-supporting device have very sick lungs. Most patients are fully sedated while ECMO assists their lungs in the exchange of blood gasses to properly oxygenate their body and its organs. But Emerson Bellucci is not most patients. 

“People would line the halls when she was up doing therapy,” said Ashlee Bellucci, Emerson’s mother. “Everybody wanted to see because they said this is not your typical ECMO patient. And I said, ‘Well, this is not your typical kid.’”

The 12-year-old from Fort Worth is one-of-a-kind in a lot of ways. Strong, resilient and mature beyond her years, Emerson not only beat the odds on ECMO, she survived a very rare and life-threatening reaction to the common antibiotic Bactrim, which she was prescribed to treat a staph infection she developed from cystic acne. The reaction is so rare, in fact, that few studies on the condition exist.

In 2023, physicians from Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, published a review of five cases of severe lung inflammation following the use of Bactrim, or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Like several in this case study, in the early days of Emerson’s reaction, her symptoms of fever, rash and difficulty breathing were initially thought to be the result of a viral infection. But her breathing became so labored that she was admitted to Cook Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) on August 18, 2024, where her care was overseen by a team of intensive care physicians and consulting specialists, including Javier Gelvez, M.D., pediatric intensivist, Krishna Pancham, M.D., pulmonologist, and Raymond Nkwantabisa, M.D., ECMO program medical director. In his 28 years of practicing medicine, Emerson is the first patient Dr. Nkwantabisa has treated for Bactrim-induced pneumonitis.

“Basically, Emerson developed severe inflammation in her lungs as a result of getting the Bactrim,” Dr. Nkwantabisa said. “This inflammation ended up causing pretty severe lung injury and damage to the air sacs in the lungs, resulting in pretty severe air leaks that required the placement of chest tubes to allow the air to escape from her lungs.”

Despite the chest tube placement and subsequently being placed on a ventilator, Emerson’s lungs were so inflamed that no amount of ventilator support could move air in and out of her lungs adequately to support her oxygen levels.

“We all need a certain amount of healthy air sacs to be able to breathe and exchange gases.” Dr. Nkwantabisa explained. “So when you get sick with, for example, very severe pneumonia where you don't have enough healthy open air sacs to exchange gas, we usually will intubate you and put you on a ventilator to breathe for you. But the ventilator only works when you have a reasonable number of healthy air sacs. If every air sac is injured or not working well, then the ventilator is limited in terms of how it can help.”

One day Emerson is a normal pre-teen dealing with all of the things that come with adolescent development and, within a matter of weeks, she’s on life-support with lungs so sick doctors began preparing her and her family for the possibility of needing a lung transplant.

“It's been the worst thing ever I could imagine,” Ashlee said. “But then there's been such high moments, you know, when I see her get up and walk with three ECMO lines in her legs. It's just miraculous.”

A Critical Lifeline

Think of ECMO as an external artificial lung. Tubes are inserted into large blood vessels, like the femoral artery and the femoral vein. Those tubes carry blue blood out of the body and pass it through an external machine that removes carbon dioxide and infuses oxygen into the blood. The oxygenated blood then flows back into the body, delivering vital oxygen to the patient’s organs. It is one of the most advanced forms of life support available.

There are very few patients that meet the criteria for remaining awake while on ECMO, says Danielle Ransonette, Cook Children’s ECMO co-coordinator. For one, the patient must have adequate pain control and tolerance without requiring complete sedation, and that doesn’t happen often, especially in children. The patient also has to be at a developmental level where they can follow directions and be reasoned with to protect the ECMO cannulae. Meeting the criteria meant Emerson had the opportunity to shoot a few basketball hoops, do physical therapy and to stand to hug her parents, all while on ECMO.

Rather than seeing the lung assist device as an obstacle, Emerson saw it as the lifeline that it was, and chose gratitude as her fuel.

“What definitely kept me going is I finally realized that it's my support,” Emerson said. “There was a huge chance I could have been dead without it. And I think that's definitely a huge reason that I'm still going.”

An Elite Force

Cook Children’s has a team of professionals specially trained to operate ECMO, and a member of this team is at the patient’s bedside 24/7 for as long as they are on the device.

Dr. Nkwantabisa likens this team to the military’s Navy SEALs, a team of elite special forces known for conducting high-risk and often covert operations. The ECMO team is called on when things are really dark and dire, he says. They are highly trained, highly competent and very low-key. Like the SEALs, these respiratory therapists and nurses are called away from their daily jobs and units throughout the hospital to accomplish a separate mission to care for an ECMO patient, sometimes for weeks or months on end. When all is said and done, they return to their respective units with little to no fanfare.

“It takes a special kind of person because, not only is it the wear and tear emotionally and physically that you go through, but there's also an intense amount of training that you come in and do over and above your regular scheduled hours,” Ransonette said. “It takes somebody who's truly dedicated, who really wants to further their knowledge and skills and really help take care of these kiddos.”

A Voice for the Voiceless

In late September, while still on ECMO, Emerson was transferred to a pediatric lung transplant center in Houston to prepare for a potential transplant. Once again, she defied the odds. On October 30, she was removed from ECMO and her transplant subsequently denied due to her recovery and progress. 

“It was just such justification for faith and God when we got the [transplant] denial letter,” Ashlee said. “Probably one of the happiest days of my life. Needless to say that that particular letter will be framed and placed at home.”

On December 12, Emerson was transferred back to Cook Children’s and admitted to the Transitional Care Unit (TCU) where her lungs continue to recover as she does daily physical therapy to strengthen her body.

“We consider [Cook Children’s] home,” Ashlee said.

Just as Emerson embraced ECMO as a lifeline, she and her family view her health and healing journey as one with purpose.

“We told Emmie early on when we were all trying to get a grasp on this just sudden change in her health, that God has a plan for her, and that she's got a story to tell when she gets through all of this,” said Robert Dancy, Emerson’s father. “We don't know what it is or how she's going to use it, but she's going to have a story to tell to help other people.”

Part of that story is the role parents and caregivers can play in supporting other children on ECMO. Having experienced ECMO while awake, Emerson was uniquely positioned to share her discomforts, such as feeling cold while on the machine, and how solutions like hot packs and warm blankets helped her feel more comfortable. Emerson hopes to use what she’s learned from the experience to be a voice for the voiceless, guiding caregivers in easing the pain and discomfort of those on ECMO who cannot communicate their needs.

And she has a message for other children facing life-changing circumstances and hardships.

“Never give up,” she said. “You will have days when you don't want to do anything because you're going to feel like you're never enough. But, no matter what, never ever give up. Keep the faith.”

The 10-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Prosper has moved to its long-term location on the hospital’s second floor.

Previously, the PICU had been temporarily situated on the fifth floor since the medical center opened its doors Jan. 9, 2023. On the facility's one-year anniversary Tuesday, the PICU moved into a new space specifically built to care for the hospital’s sickest patients and their families.

Kevin Greene, vice president and administrator at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Prosper, said the new PICU occupies 26,021 square feet on the second floor. That area was an empty shell when the medical center opened a year ago. Nine additional months of construction went into the new PICU, which is strategically positioned near the operating rooms and infusion center.

It’s an intentional approach to completing the medical center in ways that most efficiently respond to the needs of the community. Beautiful as well as high tech, the new PICU reflects the investment by Cook Children’s to bring world-class pediatric health care to the booming population on the north side of the Metroplex, Greene said.

“This is another example of Cook Children’s commitment to our families in Prosper and throughout the northern region,” he said. “We want to make sure that when our families need us most, that we’re continuing to expand and to bring more resources here so they don’t have to travel far from their homes for great care.”

The PICU is where patients go for treatment of life-threatening injuries or illnesses.  The new unit in Prosper features state-of-the-art medical services. But the layout also places a high priority on providing a comfortable experience for families.

Sheralyn Hartline, assistant vice president for Nursing and Patient Care, said the PICU’s attractive design creates a feeling of calm refuge. Amenities include a lounge, laundry facilities, food storage, and showers in private bathrooms attached to every patient room. Parents can grab a bite to eat or take a shower without leaving the unit. 

“Cook Children’s is very big into aesthetics and making things feel as homey as possible for the families,” Hartline said. “No one wants to be in the PICU. But if you have to be, let’s try to make it the best we can for you and your family.”

Making the Move   

It took months of planning to map out the logistics of safely transporting PICU patients in their beds from the fifth floor to the second floor. The move required good communication and extra support from nurses, physicians and departments across the medical center. 

The process was coordinated in stages, Hartline said, taking into account the monitors, ventilators and other vital equipment for each patient. Another key factor? Getting the right supplies to the new location. At the PICU’s previous site on the fifth floor, supplies came from carts shared with the Medical-Surgical unit. 

The PICU connects to the operating rooms and infusion center by a hallway now instead of an elevator ride. That means transitions will be faster for patients who require intensive care following surgery or an adverse reaction to an infusion, said Kathy Ramsey, D.O., medical director of the PICU in Prosper.  

“We get a lot of post-op surgical patients, and so it’s very thoughtfully planned,” Dr. Ramsey said.

The setup includes physician sleep rooms in close proximity to the patients. Nooks were built so that physicians could write notes and consult with one another privately rather than in shared offices.

Meanwhile, back on the fifth floor, the Medical-Surgical unit will expand into the vacancy left by the PICU’s move. Medical-Surgical now has room for 10 additional beds, for a total of 24, to keep up with higher patient volumes.

The leadership team had anticipated from the beginning that the facilities and services would need to expand to meet the projected population growth in Collin and Denton counties and surrounding areas. That’s why several floors originally contained open shell spaces that could be outfitted later for specific purposes. Having the empty shells created the flexibility to tailor the building utilization based on data trends. Much like the PICU’s buildout and relocation, future projects are underway or in the planning stages.  

Treating the Sickest Patients

The PICU serves children of all ages, from babies to teens. Families can expect a team of experts on site in the PICU at all hours of the day and night. Here are a few more PICU facts:

• Staff includes Intensivists, nurses, patient care technicians, social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and chaplains. Cardiologists, neurologists, pulmonologists, oncologists and other specialists are available for consultation. 
• During the surge in respiratory illnesses last fall and into the winter months, the Prosper PICU was full for the first time.
• Cook Children’s Teddy Bear Transport brings critically ill patients to the PICU via ambulance, helicopter and airplane. 

The Cook Children’s presence in Prosper dates back to 2019 with the opening of an urgent care center and several primary care offices, followed by a medical office building and outpatient surgery center in 2020. The campus now encompasses 35 acres. As part of an integrated health care system, doctors in Prosper have the capability to video conference with their colleagues at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth.  

Moving the PICU to its long-term home is an exciting chapter in our young story and another great example of our Promise in action, Greene said.

In this episode of Raising Joy, we discuss a new peer-to-peer support program that is underway in Cook Children's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Chaplain Amanda Payne Lindsay and Katelyn Terry, RN, join us to talk about the program's goals, how it works, and the impact it's having on PICU staff.

The PICU can be a traumatic environment for health care workers, and this program is aimed at limiting the impact of stress, depression, anxiety, and burnout. The program trains appointed PICU employees to serve as supportive peers to lean on in times of need.

Listen to learn how they started the peer-to-peer support program and why similar programs could benefit workplaces of all kinds.

Raising Joy is part of Cook Children’s Health Care System’s Joy Campaign, a communications initiative aimed at preventing youth suicides. For more information about the Joy Campaign, visit cookchildrens.org/joy.

New episodes of the Raising Joy podcast will be available each Tuesday. It is currently available on all major streaming platforms including Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Brothers Isaac Martinez, 7, and Jaden Alvarado, 13, are recovering at Cook Children's Medical Center after they were playing outside their home Wednesday afternoon when the tree above them was struck by lightning.

The lightning ricocheted and struck Jaden and Isaac, causing them to lose consciousness and collapse.

“It looked like fireworks were coming down the tree,” their mother Jessica Martinez Alvarado said. “I saw the boys lying on the ground when the fireworks stopped. ... I thought I had lost my boys. It's the worst feeling ever. I would never wish that on anyone.”

Isaac and Jaden were immediately rushed to Cook Children’s Medical Center Emergency Department. Doctors say that Jaden was primarily impacted by the lightning and likely suffered a cardiac arrest. The lighting ricocheted from Jaden to Isaac.

By Thursday morning, the boys were transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, with their mother and family at their side as they rested and played video games.

Jessica said they were still processing what happened to them. The boys said they don't remember what had happened and they were feeling OK.

It wasn't raining when the boys were struck, Jessica said. She noticed the lightning was getting more intense and was about to tell the boys to go inside when the lightning struck the boys moments later.

“They're always outside playing. They love to play football or any kind of sports," she said. “Their favorite thing to do is play with their dog.”

Her advice to other parents: “Don't let their kids outside when it's thundering. I know it's a one-in-a-million chance, but you never know, you might be that one. It was two for me. Be very, very careful with your babies. Make sure you hug them and kiss them and hold them tight."

Taylor Louden, M.D., Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Cook Children’s Medical Center, said that parents should be cautious and keep their children indoors when there is a severe weather threat or thunder and lightning.

“The boys came in altered and confused," Louden said. "These boys are very lucky. We're glad everyone came out OK in this instance."

If someone is fatally struck by lightning, cardiac arrest is the immediate cause of death. Dr. Louden said it is crucial for a lightning strike victim to receive CPR as soon as possible or use an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). Witnesses should call 911 immediately.

“Fortunately, lightning strikes are very rare, but we do have to be aware [of storms], especially in Texas where storms can come out of nowhere quickly," Dr. Louden said. "Even if storms are in the distance, you're still at risk.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million and almost 90% of all lightning strike victims survive.

Rebecca Benson had a feeling the weather predictions would be wrong when she woke up Thursday, Feb. 11. As she suspected, no winter storm arrived overnight to cancel school for her two children. Like any other day, she quietly put on her scrubs while her family slept and left her North Fort Worth home in the dark. A diligent nurse at Cook Children’s Medical Center for six years, Rebecca didn’t want to be late for her 7 a.m. shift.

As she traveled down Interstate 35’s expressway, everything seemed normal – until it wasn’t.

“The roads were completely dry. There was not even a mist on my windshield, absolutely nothing,” said Rebecca. “All the bridges I went over were perfectly fine until I came across the big Trinity River bridge.”

Driving down the highway for nearly 20 minutes, she had no reason to suspect what lay ahead – black ice, and a crumpled mess of metal and people. Approaching a curve at the top of a hill, Rebecca’s car began to swerve. As she confidently corrected the wheel, she noticed shining taillights getting closer. It was a pileup that would ultimately involve more than 130 vehicles, killing six people.

“I look in front of me and see all of the carnage from the accident. There's absolutely nothing I can do,” she said. “It’s the expressway. There's barriers on both sides of you. You can’t go to a shoulder. You can't do anything.”

Knowing she was about to crash, she aimed her red SUV in between two semi-trucks.

“I put my foot on the brake, said a prayer, and I literally thought to myself, ‘I could very possibly die in two seconds,” she said.

Rebecca tried to relax her body to avoid broken bones and readied herself for impact. She hit the trucks so hard, her ponytail holder came out of her hair.

“I got through that and thought, ‘Okay, I'm alive. I'm not severely injured. And then I looked in my rearview mirror and see all of these lights coming right at me,” she said.

Rebecca says that’s when she realized she wasn’t out of the woods. The chances of her being injured or worse by the oncoming traffic were high. But thanks to her quick thinking before the crash, she had positioned her vehicle in what she calls “God’s triangle,” because the trucks stuck out past her SUV, protecting her.

“Everything that hit behind me, the trucks took the impact from that. Every time another semi would hit, you would hear and feel the car move. It was so unbelievably terrifying,” she said. “I've seen it on videos, but to actually be there, waiting to see if something even worse is going to happen was awful.”

Rebecca stayed in her SUV until she stopped hearing crashes. All four doors were blocked by the trucks, so she waited until someone opened the back hatch of her vehicle. She crawled out and surveyed the situation in shock.

“I'm like, ‘Okay, I'm a nurse. I got this. Who can I help? What can I do?’” Rebecca explained. “But Fort Worth Fire Department was working a wreck on the non-express side of 35 (when the pileup began) so they were already there. There was a car behind me that they were working on with the Jaws of Life to try to help somebody. Everyone from Fort Worth Fire was amazing.”

After the crash, Rebecca called her husband who was ready to come get her. She also had a text message from her coworker, Ed, warning her not to take I-35 because traffic was backed up. Knowing Ed was stuck nearby, she decided to find him and hitch a ride to work.

“I was like, ‘All right, I'm gonna hop the barrier and I'm walking your way because there's nothing I can do. But I can at least get in your nice warm car and be safe that way,” she said. “I walked up I-35 in the ice. It was the weirdest thing to be walking on a highway.”

When she found Ed and his girlfriend, Kim, she told them to take her to work. Rebecca explained that she could have gone to the reunification center set up by first responders and waited for her husband, but she knew that drive would likely take hours due to the shutdown. She also felt the need to do something other than think about what she had just survived.

“Being able to be at work and helping instead of reliving that,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I need to get to work and just see where I can help.’”

Rebecca acknowledges this is something she will be processing for a very long time. She allowed her husband to come get her a few hours later and take her to a hospital. Thankfully, she only suffered bruises. But she’s already dealing with survivor’s guilt, wondering why she was able to walk away when so many others couldn’t.

“My heart breaks for all the people who lost loved ones, and who have loved ones in serious condition,” she said. “It's horrible, awful, terrifying.”

Rebecca remembers seeing many people in scrubs as she was walking along the interstate and calls the situation a ‘perfect storm’ for health care workers, all trying to get to work at the same time. Asked if she felt like a hero, she adamantly says ‘no.’

“I feel like I'm absolutely blessed and had guardian angels surrounding me,” she said. “I did what any other nurse I know would do. I didn't save anybody. I didn't do anything extraordinary. I just did what I'm supposed to do.”

She says the experience also gives her hope. From the first responders to good Samaritans, she says she saw the good in people. Even when she was safely waiting with Ed and Kim, she remembers a man walking car to car with a box of granola bars for anyone who may have skipped breakfast and needed something to eat.

“It gave me a lot more faith in humanity.”

These stories can be scary for parents, but how much are your kids really at risk?

Few of the emergency and pediatric intensive care unit physicians at Cook Children’s have seen a case of dry downing. Cook Children’s Trauma registry shows only one case of dry drowning in the past decade.

Dry and secondary drownings typically happen to children who struggle while swimming and take in a large amount of water.

Dry drowning never reaches the lungs, but the child takes in enough water to cause the child’s vocal chords to spasm or close up after he or she has left the water. The airways shut off and it’s hard for the child to breathe.

In secondary drowning, the water goes past the child’s airways and into the lungs, where it builds up and causes the child to have difficulty breathing.

Normally, dry drowning happens immediately after the drowning incident. Secondary drowning can take up to 1-24 hours after the drowning incident.

“I think this goes along with what we have been saying about all drowning prevention,” said Linda Thompson, M.D., a PICU pediatrician at Cook Children's. “Parents should keep a watchful eye on their children. They should never allow their kids to swim alone and they should not take their eyes off of them playing around any size of water from pools to plastic tubs or bathtubs.”

Symptoms range from trouble breathing, chest pain, lethargy and irritability.

Parents shouldn’t wait if their child has any of these symptoms or they are concerned about the large amount of water their child has swallowed. See a physician immediately.

Tips to prevent dry drowning or similar to other tips while you “Lifeguard Your Child”:

• Watch to make sure your child has not inhaled a large amount of water.
• Pools or other swimming should be closely monitored. Only swim where there is an adult present, watching the kids.
• Children should learn to swim as early as possible.
• Never let children swim alone.
• Talk to your kids about not dunking another child’s head in the water.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines drowning as “the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid” and the CDC does not distinguish between “wet” and “dry” drownings.

While dry drowning has gotten recent attention, “wet” drownings still remain the biggest threat to children. Through June 8, 2017, 20 children had been treated at Cook Children’s for drowning, including one death.

“I didn’t remember it was Christmas until we left on the 26th of December," Bryan Gutierrez said. “Everything was just such a blur during our stay. I just know we were so thankful. The whole time we were at Cook Children’s, we had a feeling we were very much in angels’ hands.”

Unfortunately, their first Christmas didn’t go as Christina and Bryan hoped after their baby Quentin was born in November 2008. Within three weeks of his birth, Quentin contracted pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Quentin experienced coughing so violent that at one point, he stopped breathing. He was rushed to a hospital in the family’s then hometown of Odessa, where the local hospital was unable to diagnose Quentin.

The coughing progressed and there was fear that Quentin's lungs would collapse. The family felt they needed more specialized care and requested a transfer to a children’s PICU.

The Gutierrez family was presented with options on where to take Quentin and decided to go with their little boy to Fort Worth.

“When we were presented with the options, I went online to research the different hospitals,” Christina said. “I found that Cook Children’s was highly rated and recommended. After looking into everything, I knew this was the place for our little boy.”

Bryan vividly recalls the Cook Children’s Teddy Bear Transport arriving in the morning to take Quentin. He said it didn’t take long to feel a sense of relief that he and his wife hadn’t felt since their son became ill.

“At the original facility, our son would turn blue. The coughing fits were getting to the point where his newborn lungs began to collapse. The doctors had failed to diagnose him or provide a treatment plan. According to the facility in Odessa, the pertussis lab test would take a couple of weeks. As soon as we walked into Cook Children's the doctors stated, "This looks like pertussis; we see this several times a year". During his first coughing fit, the nurses at Cook Children's knew exactly how to help him. We could tell we were now at a different level of care and professionalism,” Bryan said. “Within 30 minutes of our arrival, one nurse got Quentin stabilized and comforted me, all while getting us settled in. We were in the hospital for three weeks while Quentin was given the best care. The bedside manner, level of professionalism and attention to our mindset, as anxious parents, was outstanding. Our baby boy was given a clean bill of health three weeks later and we went home as extremely grateful parents.”

Quentin received care for his lungs, cleaning them out and monitoring them. The Gutierrez family would sit in on conversations between doctors and nurses during shift change. They said that transparency contributed to their confidence that they were in the right hands.

Eight years later, Quentin is a perfectly happy and healthy boy. His parents still remember their first Christmas and are thankful for who their son has become.

“When we think back to how sick he was as a baby, we are just so happy to have him in our lives,” Bryan said. “We know every parent thinks their child is special but we think he’s going to do great things someday. He’s truly a special little guy with a big heart and extremely smart. He does very well in school. He was doing an exercise at his elementary school in Flower Mound and he drew himself as president. He said the biggest thing he would do as president is be kind to everybody. I think that exemplifies what kind of child he is and proves when he was sick as a baby, it just wasn’t his time. We thank God, and Cook Children’s, for that.”

About Cook Children's PICU

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Cook Children's Medical Center cares for children with life-threatening illnesses or injuries. On-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week are two physician specialists (board certified in pediatric intensive care or board certified pediatric cardiologist) and a nurse practitioner trained in pediatric intensive care. Specialty physicians, such as neurologists, pulmonologists, oncologists and cardiologists, are available for consultation or referrals. Click to learn more.

Not that long ago, the Hawkins wondered if they would ever get home and return their life to some sort of normalcy. Even today, Melinda, Adalynn's mom, can’t believe how much time her child has spent fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Through the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, Melinda spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and even her 9-year wedding anniversary with her husband Eddie, with Adalynn at Cook Children’s. During the first few weeks of her stay, Melinda and Eddie didn’t leave the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Cook Children’s. Eventually, she and Eddie switched off every night.

Today, Adalynn is in remission. She's started her second round of maitnenance for her cancer. She receives chemo in once a month and steroids the first week of every month at the Grapevine Hematology and Oncology Center. 

Melinda knows her child is doing well for all she's been through, but she welcomes prayers because the long road ahead for her little girl. 

It's already been quite the journey.

"For the first time in a long time, I don't think about her cancer every second of every day," Melinda said. "Adalynn is doing great. She's almost back to her old self. She's smart as a whip and so aware of everything that's happened to her. The other day we were going to pick up her prescriptions up at the medical center and she told everyone she met, 'I have cancer and I have chemo.' She loves the Grapevine clinic. She knows the clinic. She says it's her clinic and the nurses are her friends."

Now, all that remains is a not too distant, horrible memory.

The night before Thanksgiving 2015, Melinda took Adalynn, 18 months old at the time, to Wichita Falls, Texas to spend the holiday with her family. Eddie flew to California to be with his folks.

Adalynn had been running a low grade fever for a couple of weeks that got worse as they drove into Wichita Falls from their home in Saginaw, Texas. As precaution, Melinda took Adalynn to the local urgent care.

By the time they reached the urgent care, Adalynn appeared extremely pale. She bypassed the Urgent Care and went to an ER. Even then, Melinda thought it was probably only an ear infection.

Blood work would show otherwise. Within 30 minutes, doctors came in to tell Melinda they feared her little girl had leukemia and they rushed Adalynn to Cook Children’s.

“I was in shock. I started crying. I scared Adalynn, but I couldn’t help it,” Melinda said. “My husband was in California during all this. I was scared, but we still didn’t realize how bad it actually was.”

Soon, Adalynn was in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). It was then that Kelly Vallance, M.D., a pediatric hematologist and oncologist began to care for not only Adalynn, but her mom too.

“She made it very clear that it wasn’t our fault,” Melinda said. “I loved that because we were like, ‘What did we do wrong?’ I’m sure every parent does that, but it was so good to hear those words from a doctor. I felt bad because we didn’t catch this soon enough. Dr. Vallance said, ‘You don’t know when this started. It could have been only two weeks ago for all we know.’”

In the early morning hours of Thanksgiving as Melinda talked to a nurse, Adalynn’s heart began to fail. The little girl was given CPR for 10 minutes before stabilizing her back.

“She looked like a lifeless baby doll,” Melinda said through sobs. “My sister heard me and she came running down the hall. She grabbed my face so I wouldn’t look in the room.”

Amazingly, after such a traumatic event, Adalynn tried to sit up in her hospital bed and even woke up during two shots of sedation.

That evening, Eddie arrived. Over about an eight hour time period, the Hawkins went from a normal Thanksgiving holiday to thinking their little girl may die.

Adalynn was diagnosed with ALL, Pre b leukemia, which doctors said was curable and treatable. Over the next few days things moved quickly:

• Adalynn stayed on a ventilator and began chemotherapy on Nov. 29, 2015. The next day, Adalynn opened her eyes and began to move more.

• On Dec. 1, she had surgery to put in a Mediport in her chest to receive the chemotherapy. She also received chemo in her spinal fluid while under.

• On Dec. 2, Adalynn was off the ventilator and doing well.

Imagine what your life would be like if this happened to your child and you get a sense of how strong Melinda and Eddie are, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t have their moments.

“It seems like every week my husband and I have a small little break down about how this happened,” Melinda said. “But then we look at her and see how far she’s come and we feel blessed.”

Over the next few months, Adalynn continued her chemo treatments. She has completed her second and third phase.

As she fought her cancer, Adalynn also faced new physical challenges. She had to learn to walk and talk again. She had vocal paralysis from the tubes that had been placed down her throat. But fortunately, everything came back naturally. Her mom said, “she didn’t miss a beat.”

On Dec. 28, Adalynn went into remission and she is showing great signs on her way to recovery. Her mom thanks God for her daughter’s miraculous recovery and looks at the medical care she’s received at Cook Children’s as a gift from heaven. In the same breath as talking about how ICU saved her daughter’s life, she talks about the amazing care the nurses have provided for Adalynn. She laughs when she remembers the nurses insisting on putting her daughter’s hair in pig tails after a bath.

“Cook Children’s has been so wonderful,” Melinda said. “I can’t believe the compassion they have and how amazing they are. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. The way Child Life was with her, even when she was kind of out of it, they would still come in and see her. Dr. Vallance was amazing. She was making her last rounds and heard the commotion that first night. She watched her get CPR and held my sister’s hand. She was right there when all that was happening. The entire Oncology Department and PICU hold a special place in our hearts.

Melinda said she and Eddie still have the occassional breakdown when thinking about everything that has happend to their daughter.

But they have made it this far, grateful for their good fortune and saddened for those who haven't been as blessed.

"We are starting September and there's so much awareness about kids with cancer and EraseKidsCancer," Melinda said. "I'm very happy that we are raising awareness, but it's also really hard."

At this point Melinda begins to cry. "We've met a lot of kids while at Cook Children's who aren't there any more. I thank God that Adalynn is Ok, but at the same time my heart breaks for those parents who have lost their children."

As she fights back her tears and says she will continue to pray, Adalynn makes a loud noise in the background. She's on the loose at her home. Those Terrible Twos are at again.

Melinda sighs as she gazes at her daughter.

“Someday she’s going to have an amazing story to tell,” she said.

She already does.

Count your many blessings. See what God has done!"

- Johnson Oatman Jr.

I grew up knowing every word to the song, “Count Your Many Blessings,” but never truly appreciated the powerful message until this past summer.

Our daughter, Eliza, got sick June 19, 2015. It seemed like a typical stomach bug. But by the next day, we knew something was wrong. She was hospitalized at Lakeside Covenant in Lubbock, Texas a couple days later.

It was there that we received her diagnosis, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, or HUS, caused by E coli. They arranged for us to be immediately flown to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Three letters: H.U.S – that would change our lives forever.

Eliza’s kidneys began shutting down; she was exhibiting signs of neurological disturbances as well. We couldn’t believe our healthy child was going downhill so quickly. She was transferred to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit), where we would spend the next 26 days.

The staff in the PICU started Eliza on dialysis right away. As a mother, it was my worst nightmare, to see my child unresponsive, lying on a bed with multiple machines keeping her alive.

Eliza wasn’t following the normal progression of HUS. She began having seizures, her kidneys still refused to work, she continued to have gastrointestinal bleeding, and was showing signs of extreme pain.

By this point, she had gone through several blood transfusions, plasma exchanges, dialysis around the clock, numerous MRIs, CAT scans, EEGs, and EKGs. She had a whole team of doctors and they were all stumped. We were constantly told that she wasn’t their typical HUS patient.

Thankfully, Eliza’s nephrologist, Dr. Jennifer Willis, kept researching and questioning Eliza’s unusual symptoms. This would eventually save Eliza’s life. She suspected Eliza not only had HUS, caused by E coli, but also atypical HUS, a genetic disease.

She approached my husband and I about running a genetic test on Eliza to confirm the atypical HUS diagnosis, but the results would take up to 8 weeks. In the meantime, she wanted to try a medication called Soliris. She warned us that it was very expensive and she was not sure if insurance would cover it.

We continued to pray, we asked for prayers, and decided it was worth the risk. We just wanted our Eliza back! This was the first moment I truly realized we might lose our precious baby. We had been so hopeful and optimistic the entire time, but my hope was gone. I pleaded with God to be with Eliza and her medical team and save her life.

He answered my prayers and the prayers of many who were praying all over the world for her. Dr. Willis was right, after two doses of the medication, we began to see dramatic improvement. Eliza woke up, began talking, and progressed more and more every day.

Fifty days after exhibiting her initial symptoms, we were released from Cook Children’s. During Eliza’s summer at Cook Children’s we became friends with all the employees. We knew the PICU nurses, the receptionists and Eliza’s specialists.

Cook Children’s became our home. Eliza now looks, sounds, moves, and plays like a normal 2 year old. The syndrome, atypical HUS, has long-term side effects on some of her organs.

Currently, Eliza’s kidneys function at 60 percent. She is on multiple medications for both seizures and high blood pressure. The atypical HUS diagnosis was correct, as genetic tests eventually confirmed. Eliza receives a Soliris infusion every other week. Our sweet girl is a model patient. She jumps on the scale, stands to get measured, picks an arm for the blood pressure cuff, and watches while her port is accessed.

We owe so much to all the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff at Cook Children’s, as well as family, community, and the countless people praying for Eliza.

Is it a normal life? No, but it is her life and we thank God every day.

“Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.”