Children's Center at Valley Baptist enables kids & parents to stay in Valley for Specialized Care

HARLINGEN, TEXAS - February 2004 – The Valley’s first Children’s Center devoted exclusively to the care of children and infants turned a year old in February. The attractive new center is enabling many children to stay in the Valley for specialized medical care.

The Matt & Patty Gorges Children’s Center at Valley Baptist offers comprehensive pediatric services in a 62-bed, 42,000 square-foot facility specifically designed to accommodate children and their parents. The new center opened in Feb. 2003, and since then has treated more than 3,000 children.  In December 2003, the center was named in honor of Harlingen community leaders and generous supporters Matt and Patty Gorges.

Prior to the opening of the $8 million Children’s Center, many Valley families often had to travel to Corpus Christi or San Antonio for specialized pediatric care. Having a Children’s Center in the Valley saves money and time for these families – and lessens the hardship for a child who is ill, since the child is closer to home and family.

“The Matt & Patty Gorges Children’s Center is much more convenient for the families of the Valley when they need hospitalization or physician consultation,” said James G. Springfield, CHE, President and Chief Executive Officer of Valley Baptist Health System.

Mr. Springfield noted that lengthy hospital stays can place great burdens on families, who have to balance time away from home to tend to their child with the financial necessity to work and provide for their family. This “balancing act” is much more difficult when the hospital is located out of the Valley.

Mr. Springfield said the need for children’s specialty care has increased with the growth in the Valley’s population.

“Because of the Children’s Center, Valley families are benefiting from a comprehensive, local, first-class facility,” Mr. Springfield said.  “It’s the first of its kind … the first pediatric specialty unit in the Rio Grande Valley. We’re taking care of children … they’re not just little adults.”

The state-of-the-art center features 48 private rooms and 14 pediatric intensive care rooms, as well as greater access to expanded pediatric specialty care. Children are able to receive enhanced care in such areas as cardiology, pulmonary medicine, neurology, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, surgery, intensive care, oncology, immunology, and dentistry.

Helping provide care at the Children’s Center is María Teresa Camacho, MD, VBMC Pediatric Critical Care Specialist, who treats children with illnesses or injuries that place them in an unstable critical condition. As a hospital pediatric intensivist, Dr. Camacho specializes in providing intensive life-saving pediatric care. She is the first Pediatric Critical Care Specialist in the Cameron County area.

Dr. Camacho noted that children have special needs when they are in the hospital. “Children cannot always say what is bothering them,” she said. “Pediatric critical care specialists are trained to examine and treat children in ways that put them at ease. We also use special medical equipment that is designed just for children."

A dramatic example of the life-saving difference that the Children’s Center is making for Valley children took place when Dr. Camacho used a special treatment to save the life of a two-year-old Valley child who had been attacked by hundreds of Africanized “killer” bees. Dr. Camacho performed one of the first procedures of its type in South Texas, during which the child’s blood was entirely replaced to rid his body of the venom from over 240 bee stings.  During this life-saving procedure, Dr. Camacho was assisted by a team of dedicated health care professionals which included nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacist, and laboratory personnel.  

The child had been attacked by a swarm of bees in the Willacy County area while he was playing next to a swing set. His condition was so serious that it required rapid replacement of his blood, to prevent the bee toxins from causing kidney and liver failure and possible death. “In a case` like that, we need to get the new blood in right away,” Dr. Camacho said.

The child’s mother said she was very grateful to Dr. Camacho and the Children’s Center staff. “They were very helpful and very caring … the intensive care unit took care of the baby and explained everything to us,” the mother said.

In addition to Dr. Camacho, a growing number of pediatric sub-specialists are now serving on VBMC’s medical staff, including pediatric pulmonologist Elman Trias, MD; pediatric gastroenterologists Mihaela Ringheanu, MD and Fadi Haddad, MD; pediatric immunologist Anthony Infante, MD; pediatric cardiologists Assad Alhroob, MD, John Pliska, MD, Amer Salhadar, MD, and Carlos N. Monarrez, MD; pediatric endrocrinologists Mushtaq Godil, MD and Ruth Ann Plotkin, MD; pediatric hematologists / oncologists Guy Grayson, MD, Juan Bernini, MD, Howard Britton, MD, Anne-Marie Langevin, MD, and Paul Thomas, MD; pediatric neurologist Rafael Mimbela, MD; pediatric infectious disease specialists Wilmer Loja, MD and Linette Linsangan, MD; and pediatric dentists Linda Burke, DDS, and Edith Rojas, DDS.

Stanley I. Fisch, M.D., of Harlingen Pediatrics, said the Children’s Center is “another first” for the Valley and Valley Baptist. He noted that Valley Baptist Medical Center also opened the Valley’s first Newborn Intensive Care Unit in 1974, as well as the Valley’s first Pediatrics Unit.

The Children’s Center features colorful and unique artwork and special features to make children feel more comfortable. One wing of the center, nicknamed “The Train Station,” features 25 beds with a nurses’ station in the décor of a miniature toy train.

A second nurse’s station is known as “The Castle” because it is decorated as a colorful castle. Yet a third nursing station is depicted as “Noah’s Ark.” By decorating the nurses’ stations in themes which appeal to children, the Children’s Center is helping to make children feel more comfortable and less anxious while they are hospitalized.

The center’s décor is child-focused in themes that are geared to a child’s mind … including special exam tables which are shaped like animals.  

One Valley mother from Rio Hondo said the Children’s Center is indeed a special place.

“It’s beautiful. I’m very surprised they did something like this. It’s very pretty,” the mother said during her son’s stay in the hospital. “I think the bright colors and the trains help the children a lot. They feel like they’re at home instead of in the hospital.”

“It’s great,” added a Harlingen mother of a 10-year-old patient. “Hopefully their experience will be a little nicer, because everything is bright, not like a bland hospital room.”

Murals adorn every wall of the Children’s Center, with one area so extensively decorated that it is called “Binney Park.” The artwork was the biggest creation so far of Valley artist Rudy Vallee Hyde Jr. of San Benito, who has painted murals at several Valley businesses.

Child patients such as three-year-old Ashley Rosas enjoy playing in two playrooms at the Children’s Center. The playrooms allow the young patients to enjoy pleasant activities which makes their hospital stay more bearable and less stressful.

Maricela Medina, a Child Life Specialist on the Children’s Center staff, coordinates therapeutic and recreational play activities and learning activities for the children.   These activities can help the hospitalized child in coping with the stress which is often involved when a child is hospitalized.

The Children’s Center also works with the Harlingen school district, which provides a teacher to assist children with their school work when they are hospitalized for long periods of time. This helps the children to stay up with their school work, so they don’t fall too far behind while they are in the hospital.

All of the rooms in the Children’s Center are large enough for a parent to stay in the room with the child, which helps the child to feel more comfortable.   In addition, the Ronald McDonald House, located across the street from the Children’s Center, provides a “home away from home” for needy families while their children are hospitalized with serious illnesses.

A state-of-the-art security system in the Children’s Center enhances the feeling of safety for parents as well. The comprehensive security system integrates access control, patient monitoring and video surveillance.