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Preliminary Laboratory Testing Indicates Positive Outcome in the Treatment of Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease

Preliminary Laboratory Testing Indicates Positive Outcome in the Treatment of Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease

by | Oct 11, 2018 | General News, Press Coverage

Washington, DC, October 11, 2018 –(PR.com)– The Legg Calve Perthes Foundation, in partnership with Dr. Harry Kim of the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas has been selected to showcase preliminary laboratory results of this research at the 2018 National Organization of Rare Disorders (NORD) annual summit. On October 15-16th, the annual NORD Conference will boast over 700 attendees. “This is truly an honor to both become a NORD member and have our laboratory findings shared with NORD attendees in the same year,” said Dr. Harry Kim, MD.

Kim and his research team consisting of Olumide Aruwajoye PhD; Thomas Wesley Mitchell; Michael Kutschke BS; Vishal Gokani BS; and Naga Suresh Adapala PhD surgically induced femoral head osteonecrosis in an experimental model of Legg–Calvé–Perthes Disease. For those unfamiliar, Perthes disease is a childhood hip disorder initiated by a disruption of blood flow to the ball of the femur called the femoral head. Due to the lack of blood flow, the bone dies (osteonecrosis or avascular necrosis) and stops growing. Perthes disease is one of the most common hip disorders in young children, occurring in roughly 5.5 of 100,000 children per year. Perthes disease usually occurs in children aged 4-10 years. Boys are affected about three to five times more often than girls. New cases of Perthes disease rarely occur after age of 14 years. There is no known cure today.

Kim and his team previous found high levels of an inflammation producing protein called interleukin 6 in the hip joints of patients with Perthes disease. Based on this finding, their research hypothesis was that anti-interleukin 6 therapy would improve chronic hip synovitis and promote bone healing in an experimental model of Perthes disease. Dr. Kim is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Hip Disorders at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. His commitment to returning children to their childhood is unfound, and has treated hundreds of Perthes Disease cases in children over the course of his 20-year career.

Findings conducted from this study were positive and significant, as this is the first study to investigate the effects of anti-IL-6 therapy on femoral head osteonecrosis. The results indicated both a decrease in hip synovitis score and significant increase in bone rebuilding. “More funding is needed to continue these research efforts to cure Perthes disease, and the partnership with the Legg Calve Perthes Foundation will help pave the way,” said founder, Colleen Rathgeber.

About Legg Calve Perthes Foundation
The Legg-Calve-Perthes Foundation is a national educational organization dedicated to helping adults and children living with Perthes, and providing support with the associated difficulties that often come with the Perthes diagnosis. The Foundation’s mission is to create a centralized support community to improve the research, education, and awareness of those diagnosed with Perthes.

Contact Information:
Legg Calve Perthes Foundation
Colleen Rathgeber
202-505-9360
Contact via Email
perthes.org

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/767208

Dallas Business Journal: Take a look inside Scottish Rite’s new sports medicine center in Frisco

Dallas Business Journal: Take a look inside Scottish Rite’s new sports medicine center in Frisco

by | Sep 20, 2018 | General News, Press Coverage

View the original story on the Dallas Business Journal website here.
 

With the new Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children campus just weeks away from opening its doors in Frisco, final touches are being made to the 345,000-square-foot sports medicine facility.

The Scottish Rite for Children Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center, a five-story ambulatory surgery center with outpatient clinics and walk-in availability, will start accepting patients in October.

The new campus was built to serve North Texas’ growing community and meet the needs of 25 percent of the pediatric hospital’s patients who live in cities north of Dallas, said Jeremy Howell, vice president of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.

Howell said pediatric sports medicine is one of the fastest growing sub-specialties in orthopedics, and the new building, which is anchored by the Center for Excellence in Sports Medicine, will be outfitted with the latest technology that can offer preventative care and conduct valuable research for young athletes.

“We want to be able to come alongside these kids and help them out and hopefully prevent injury,” he said. “But if it happens, we want them to know they’ll be taken care of by the best orthopedic surgeons.”

The facility, which sits on a 40-acre swath of land at the Dallas North Tollway and Lebanon Road near the newly opened Baylor Scott & White Sports Therapy & Research center at The Star, has an outdoor sprint track and a soccer field for patient rehabilitation and research. It also has conference rooms, a walking trail and a playground, all of which will be open for community use.

“It was important for us to give back to the community that has given so much to us,” added Howell.

Dallas-based HKS Inc. is the architect behind the sprawling campus and The Beck Group is the general contractor.

The project’s lead architect, Rachel Knox, said her team met with Scottish Rite staff to get a sense of patients’ emotional needs and how the building’s design could help address them.

“A big driver of the design of this space was to bring in natural light into the patients rooms,” said Knox.

The design also accounted for larger waiting rooms that can comfortably accommodate patients’ families and offer them a little privacy, she added.

One waiting room, the result of a partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, features an electric fireplace and a play area, making it feel more like a living room than a waiting room.

Knox said a lot of thought went into how to bring the brand of the 96-year-old Dallas hospital to a new building. The signature crayon colors of the Dallas campus were a must, she said. Vibrant primary colors are threaded throughout the new building, from the art to the color-coded floors to a rainbow spiral staircase in the lobby.

“We don’t want it to feel, smell or look like a hospital,” said Howell.

As North Texas continues to grow, the campus is prepared to grow with it. An additional floor and a half of available shell space is spread throughout the building, including four more operating rooms. And it will likely be needed, Howell said. The campus is anticipating 22,000 clinical visits and 13,000 physical therapy visits in its first year.

Meet Malachi – The 13-year-old Motivational Speaker

Meet Malachi – The 13-year-old Motivational Speaker

by | Aug 15, 2018 | General News, Press Coverage

Watch full video.

DALLAS – Some people’s first thought when they hear about a 13-year-old motivational speaker is probably, “What could I possibly learn from a 13-year-old?”

If that’s what crosses your mind, it’s time to think twice. Malachi Walker was born in 2005, but he has the kind of wisdom some people born in 1975 could use. “My goal with the book is helping other people accomplish their goals and get out of their bad situations,” he explained.

Malachi wrote The Boomerang Effect, which he explains is “the strategy to help you shatter your glass ceiling.” “What you sow you will reap and what you throw you will keep,” he said. “That’s what the boomerang effect is. Your choices come back to you.”

He’s not only an author, but he’s also a budding motivational speaker. At Scottish Rite Hospital’s recent annual book sale, Malachi read and signed The Boomerang Effect for a captive audience of patients and families.

The book features an appropriate title for the speaking appearance, as he was back at the place it all began.

Scottish Rite doctors diagnosed Malachi with a knee problem that kept him out of soccer, his greatest passion, for 13 months. But during those 13 months, he wrote his book. His mother Christina and father Charlie were supportive, but surprised. “When he first told us that he wanted to be a motivational speaker, I remember looking at Charlie, you know – when [Malachi] wasn’t looking at us – and my eyes got really big, and I thought, ‘OK we’re going to help you do that!’

The book is also about being kind, because Malachi has realized how you treat people has an impact on how they treat you in return. That is a lesson the Walkers have worked hard to teach their children. “You never know if they’re going to pick up what you teach them,” Christina said. “It’s neat to see him grab something and do something with it.”

Malachi is practicing his motivational speaking skills by regularly posting videos on his YouTube channel.

Oklahoma girl with rare bone disease designs super hero casts

Oklahoma girl with rare bone disease designs super hero casts

by | Jul 6, 2018 | General News, Press Coverage

Watch full video.

CLEVELAND, Oklahoma –

An 8-year-old girl, who’s had more than 40 broken bones in her young life, got something special during her most  recent surgery.

Doctors diagnosed Courtney White with a rare bone disease when she was just a baby after she broke her femur twice in a matter of months.

The condition cause her bones to break easily, which means she spends a lot of time wearing casts.

Her most recent casts – one on each leg – feature Courtney as a super hero.

Courtney now has rod in every major bone in both legs. And doctors recently had to replace a rod in one shin and put a rod in the other.

Before the surgery, doctors at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas challenged Courtney to design her own cast. She drew up Wonder Woman boots because she’s a little warrior.

Her family will tell you, Courtney is a super hero in their eyes every day.

She has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Type 6. Experts say only 6 to 7 people out of every 100,000 have OI and of those, only 1-percent lives with Type 6.

“We have found that each day is a new experience. We never know day to day what her mobility will look like or what her pain level will be or if we will have another injury,” her dad Justin White said. “That has been life for Courtney, it’s her normal and she has learned to embrace it.”

Courtney has broken 40 bones and has gone through 12 surgeries.

But despite all that, she still lives for adventure. She likes to hunt and fish and spend time with her mom, dad and big sister.

“She knows there are some things that she just won’t be able to do, but she also knows that there are many things that she can do, she’s just going to have to work harder for them than most people,” Justin said. “We’ve tried to teach her not to feel sorry for herself, but instead, accept things as they come and work through them.”

And that’s how she lives her life. He says Courtney is always positive, cheerful and faces every challenge head on – with unflinching faith.

A few days before Courtney’s most recent surgery her grandpa overheard her saying this prayer, “Father, thank you for this wonderful world that I live in, and thank you for my wonderful life. I love you so much, because everything you do is wonderful.”

Her dad says that’s Courtney, the bravest, toughest person he’s ever known.

“Her bones make break often, but her spirit and her faith never do,” her dad said.

1968-2018: Celebrating 50 Years Since the First Consensus Definition of Dyslexia

1968-2018: Celebrating 50 Years Since the First Consensus Definition of Dyslexia

by | Apr 5, 2018 | General News

Over 50 years ago, the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders was established to provide treatment and guidance to children with learning disorders. 

This week, the hospital is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the World Federation of Neurology’s meeting which formulated the first consensus definition of Dyslexia. In April of 1968, the first meeting of the World Federation of Neurology’s Research Group on Developmental Dyslexia and World Illiteracy took place at Scottish Rite Hospital. Below is the definition that was approved by the group in 1968:

Specific Development Dyslexia
A disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to ready despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and socio-cultural opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive disabilities which are frequently of constitutional origin. 

Throughout the decades, the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders has grown to become the premier learning facility for both children diagnosed with a learning disorder and therapists in training. Director of the Center Gladys Kolenovsky, has witnessed the impact this group of experts has made on this patient population. “Since the beginning, we have been dedicated to giving children with dyslexia the tools and confidence to be successful both in school and in life,” says Kolenvosky. “As we embark on this 50-year milestone, it gives us a moment to reflect and give thanks to the group who gathered to define dyslexia and from that day has enhanced the care for these children.” 

Learn more about the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders Center. 

WFAA: Ideas that pop: Children’s hospital using popcorn to transform patient experience

WFAA: Ideas that pop: Children’s hospital using popcorn to transform patient experience

by | Jan 25, 2018 | General News, Press Coverage

Watch full video here. 

When you walk through the doors or Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children the first thing you notice is the buttery smell. 

“My kids think of the movies they don’t think of a hospital,” John Dailey remarked as he walked in with his two daughters.

The girls promptly made a bee line for the popcorn stand and handed over a quarter to volunteer Letecia Desaloms who stays busy filling bags. 

“The smile on a child’s face is what I love. I’ve worked in hospitals my whole life and this place is magic,” Desaloms said.

The girls’ father says one of his girls never runs but on this day she sprinted to the stand. The popcorn was a treat for the girl but seeing his daughter run was the real gift for her dad. 

The popcorn stand started decades ago. Patients, doctors and volunteers say it’s Dallas’ best popcorn and one of the best kept secrets across DFW.

While the snacks are delicious they serve another purpose, to send a subliminal message through smell that the children are somewhere fun. 

“We’ve had stories of children literally thinking they were going to an amusement park when they came here. They didn’t realize it was a hospital until they got older,” said Avery Wyatt who has been working at Scottish Rite for just over a year. 

While the popcorn may be the most delicious detail Scottish Rite is being studied by hospitals across the world for their attention to detail and building designs with patient experience in mind. 

“The architects who designed this build have become world famous for their work on children’s hospitals,” said Tony Herring a current surgeon and Scottish Rite’s former chief of staff.

The orthopedic nonprofit hospital also designed a system to make sure medical equipment is not seen in common and open spaces like hallways or waiting areas. Instead the equipment is kept in a central room that backs up to all exam rooms. Nurses and doctors bring the equipment into exam rooms through a separate door once patients are ready to be seen. 

The hospital also has a large playground out front, strategically placed so patients can see it from their hospital room windows. The park is also open to children who are not being treated at the hospital to make it more inclusive and more about fun. 

“I have worked here since 1975 and there’s no other place like it,” Herring said.

Other psychological designs include wide hallways and lots of big open spaces which the hospital says has been proven to  promote less stress for families. 

And everywhere you go one other thing is constant, that delicious popcorn smell.

“You know you’re here as soon as you take a deep breath,” Dailey said.

The hospital’s volunteers pop 6000 pounds every year and they have no plans on stopping anytime soon.