But when his daughter was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted to Cook Children’s, he became every other worried parent … except with way too much knowledge of medicine for his own good.

Everything started a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Dr. Guzman was at work when he received a phone call from his wife, Abbie. She told him that Sophia Grace, their 6-year-old daughter, didn’t feel well.

Rarely do any of the Guzman children get sick. So this wasn’t normal for any of them, but especially Sophia. She is the “crazy child.” The one Dr. Guzman says will someday be the death of him because of her rambunctious nature.

When Dr. Guzman came home that evening, Sophia’s temperature was up to 104. He gave her a fever reducer that worked for a little bit, but he noticed his daughter wasn’t herself. She wasn’t running, playing or dancing like normal.

By the third day, he knew “something was weird.” Sophia wasn’t showing any other signs of being sick, except a fever and she was lethargic. She didn’t have a runny nose, congestion or cough.

“So I went into doctor mode,” Dr. Guzman said. “I looked at her ears and throat. I listened to her lungs. There was a change in there. Typically, these are the lungs of a kid with pneumonia.”

Dr. Guzman made an appointment for his daughter to see her pediatrician, Ben Worsley, M.D. Sophia was still running a fever steadily at 104, despite taking antibiotics. An X-ray confirmed what Dr. Guzman already expected. His daughter had pneumonia.

“I see kids every day,” Dr. Guzman said. “But when it is your child … Oh man … Your mind starts to go to places that are bad. I know the worst that could happen.”

Karen Schultz, M.D., the medical director of Pulmonology at Cook Children’s, took over Sophia’s care. Dr. Schultz and Dr. Guzman trained together during internship and residency in pediatrics and have known each other for more than 20 years.

Dr. Guzman admits to being a bit of a mess while his daughter was in the hospital. He continued to work in the Emergency Department for the first couple of days his daughter was at the medical center, until someone could take over his shift. He compartmentalized. In the ED, he was in complete control. But his heart was upstairs where he watched helplessly from the sidelines.

“I knew Sophia was in great hands,” Dr. Guzman said. “I knew we were in the right place and at a great institution. I trust everyone implicitly. I knew early on I needed to be just the dad and let everyone else do their jobs. I just felt helpless. I had no control of what was going on. It was so hard from a physician standpoint.”

Dr. Guzman learned his daughter shared his fear of needles. Yes, the emergency physician still has a fear of needles to this day and so did his daughter after being poked a few times during her stay. Suddenly the fun place her daddy worked became a hospital.

The night after being admitted, Sophia experienced breathing problems and her fever continued to spike. She wasn’t getting better.

John “Chip” Uffman, M.D., a surgeon at Cook Children’s, and Dr. Schultz met with Dr. Guzman and Abbie. Their little girl needed surgery to insert a tube into her chest and drain the fluid off her lungs from the pneumonia.

“I’m a wreck at this point,” Dr. Guzman said. “I know too much. It’s my job to calm parent’s fear, but I knew all the risks too. It was all going through my head and I just wasn’t thinking clearly or rationally. I knew for my wife and for my little girl, I had to keep it together.”

Dr. Guzman gathered his composure, but couldn’t help but think about the scared parents he sees as an emergency physician. He says he has become more aware of that process. He wants to be even more patient while talking to families and really make sure they understand everything he’s telling them.

But that would come later when he returned to work. For now, he focused on his daughter’s health.

The worst part for him was watching his daughter being taken away for surgery. She held out her arms to mom and dad. “That was heartbreaking,” Dr. Guzman said.

What Dr. Guzman didn’t realize was his daughter wouldn’t remember anything about the surgery.

“It was the hardest hour and a half of our lives, waiting on some news,” Dr. Guzman said. “But Sophia just says, ‘I took giggle juice.’”

The tube drained fluid from Sophia’s lungs and she continued to receive antibiotics through an IV.

Over the next couple of days, Dr. Guzman saw Cook Children’s through a patient family’s eyes. He saw the work of the therapy dogs and the music therapy program. She received a Build-A-Bear and even a visit from Santa.

“Everyone did such a great job to get her to smile and feel good,” Dr. Guzman said. “We are so blessed to have all of these things at Cook Children’s. I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have. For the first time since she was in the hospital, I watched Sophia’s face just light up. It was so nice to see her happy again.”

Nearly a week after being admitted to the medical center, Dr. Guzman and Abbie were finally able to smile too. The chest tube was removed and after 18 hours of sleep that Dr. Guzman calls the “dark black spot,” Sophia woke up at 5:30 in the morning. She was ready to eat. She was ready to play. Her parents were ready to finally sleep. Their daughter was on her way to recovery.

“Now for Sophia, this has become a badge of honor. She tells her two siblings, ‘I was poked six times. I have a scar on the right side of my chest. I had a tube inserted. I was the first one in the family to have surgery,” Dr. Guzman said. “She wears this proudly. At the time, we were deathly afraid. It’s nice to see how she’s been able to cope and find so many positives about her stay. It’s just so great."

These visits are most commonly a secondary infection with the flu and RSV.

“Actually, pneumonia has been what kills many people with the flu,” Audrey Rogers, M.D., a pediatrician at Forest Park, said. “The flu weakens your immune system and allows the bacteria to take hold and cause an infection in the air sacks of the lungs. That is what a classic bacterial pneumonia causes.”

Viruses cause inflammation of the air tubes more than the air sacks. But the bacteria cause a lot of damage and if it destroys enough of the air sacks it can be fatal. If your immune system is already weak it can be much worse. Infants, the elderly and immunosuppressed people are especially at risk if they have pneumonia. Classic pneumonia is usually diagnosed with a chest X-ray.

To learn more about this topic read:

Daughter's Pneumonia Gives Physician New Perspective as a Patient's Dad

Get to know Justin Smith, M.D.

Justin Smith, M.D., is a pediatrician in Trophy Club  and the Medical Advisor for Digital Health for Cook Children's in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Smith is an experienced keynote speaker for a variety of topics including pediatric/parenting topics, healthcare social media and physician leadership. If you are interested in having Dr. Smith present to your conference or meeting, please contact him at thedocsmitty@cookchildrens.org.

He has an active community on both Facebook and Twitter as @TheDocSmitty and writes weekly for Cook Children's checkupnewsroom.com. He believes that strategic use of social media and technology by pediatricians to connect with families can deepen their relationship and provide a new level of convenience for both of their busy lifestyles. Dr. Smith’s innovative pediatric clinic, a pediatric clinic “designed by you,” open now. Click to learn more. To make an appointment, call 817-347-8100.

Breaking news concerning the weirdest week in celebrity-infectious disease history:

Peyton Manning helped lead the Broncos to victory despite suffering from a flu-like illness.

Sidney Crosby and multiple other National Hockey League stars have been diagnosed with mumps.

Angelina Jolie missed press events for the release of Unbroken, a movie which she directed, because she was diagnosed with chicken pox.

Maybe it is not breaking news. In fact, I’m pretty confident that they will all recover without any issues. Most people with any of these three diseases do.

We so rarely see mumps and chicken pox that we often forget how people used to suffer severe consequences from these diseases.

Here’s a quick reminder of some of the problems people can have as a result of these infections:

Flu

We have talked a lot about flu and flu vaccination in the past few weeks. Most children with the flu will have fever, cough, congestion and body aches,but will recover without incident in three to five days.

What do we need to watch for?

The most common problems with flu are dehydration and wheezing or difficulty breathing (especially in children with asthma).

A couple of more rare complications:

Pneumonia - Children can have viral pneumonia or a “secondary” bacterial pneumonia after the flu. (Secondary means that it comes after and as a result of having the flu. Think of it like the flu made the lungs weaker and more likely to get a different kind of infection.)

Nervous system involvement - These are rare but can involve confusion (caused by encephalitis-which is inflammation of the lining of the brain) and weakness (Guillain-Barré syndrome).

Mumps

Most children with mumps have low grade fever, fatigue, headache and muscle soreness. These symptoms are followed quickly by the most characteristic sign of mumps which is swelling of a gland in the cheek, called the parotid gland. The infection is typically more severe in adults than children.

What do we need to watch for?

Orchitis - This is a mumps infection involving the testicles. It is the most common complication in adolescent and adult males and can lead to sterility. A similar infection can occur in girls in the ovaries but is less common.

Nervous system involvement-Infected persons can have meningitis which causes fever, headache and neck pain. In addition, prior to vaccination mumps was one of the most common causes of deafness in children.

Chicken Pox

Because most of us had chicken pox and only suffered fever and the characteristic red, itchy rash, it is sometimes difficult to understand why we are vaccinating against the virus. Fortunately, that is the case for most children who contract the disease.

What do we need to watch for?

Skin infections - Because staph skin infections are so common now (and often resistant to some antibiotics), I am glad that we have a vaccine to prevent chicken pox. Any open sore, especially one that children are scratching is prone to infection.

Best advice is to stay away from athletes and celebrities this holiday season.

Ultimately, just remember that these diseases can be serious even though these celebrities should be just fine.