Cook Children's Health Care System

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cook Children's Medical Center is pleased to announce that the hospital has successfully performed its first-ever separation surgery for conjoined twin sisters AmieLynn Rose and JamieLynn Rae Finley of Fort Worth, Texas. The 11-hour long surgery took place on Monday, Jan. 23, at Cook Children's. A team of 25 medical professionals, including 6 surgeons, carefully performed this historic surgery, while parents Amanda Arciniega and James Finley patiently waited for news of their separation. While still very early, both AmieLynn and JamieLynn are recovering well. "Our team at Cook Children's was honored to bring together our collective expertise in treating high-risk infants and conducting complex surgery to help AmieLynn and JamieLynn reach this incredible milestone," said Jose L. Iglesias, M.D., Medical Director of Pediatric Surgery at Cook Children's Medical Center and the lead surgeon for twins' surgery. "The separation surgery will give AmieLynn and JamieLynn better opportunities to improve their health and development, and to grow as the unique, individual little girls that they have been since birth, regardless of their physical connection as conjoined twins." The Cook Children's Medical Center team comprised medical experts from across multiple specialties to collaborate on this unique and complex surgery, leveraging the team's expertise in treating the most difficult, rare and complex pediatric conditions. Conjoined twins are rare; it's estimated to occur in 1-in-200,000 live births. In fact, each year only five to eight conjoined twins worldwide survive the first few days after birth. JamieLynn and AmieLynn are omphalopagus twins, which means they are joined at the abdomen and share one or more internal organs. In their specific case, they were joined from the lower part of the breastbone to their bellybutton and shared a liver. The girls were born prematurely on Oct. 3, 2022, at 34-weeks gestation, weighing 4 pounds, 7.8 ounces at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. Since their birth, physicians at both facilities have worked closely to prepare a delivery and postnatal game plan. "The working relationship between the whole team—that's made possible by the close relationship of the hospitals—allows us to be the center that can provide this type of highly advanced service to North Texas so families don't have to go halfway across the state or halfway across the country or even to Dallas for care," Bannie Tabor, M.D., Maternal Fetal Specialist at Texas Health Resources said. The teams have worked to improve the girls' health, growth and development and to prepare them for the surgery. Neonatologists Dr. Chad Barber and Dr. Mary Frances Lynch worked alongside the Cook Children's NICU team focusing on all aspects of the girls' health and wellbeing; ensuring the proper development of their brain, heart, lungs and other vital organs and focusing on their nutrition and growth. To achieve this groundbreaking surgery, the Cook Children's Medical Center team dedicated months to the planning and collaboration of this separation. The surgical team, led by Dr. Jose L. Iglesias, studied scans of the girls, built models of their anatomy, mapped out potential surgical solutions, prepared the operating room and rehearsed the carefully choreographed surgical procedure. The teams ran through multiple simulations of the separation surgery and prepared for multiple foreseeable scenarios and outcomes. The expert team orchestrated all anticipated details for the day of the surgery and the days leading up to it. "At this stage in AmieLynn and JamieLynn's growth and development, this was the right time for them to have the surgery," said Dr. Mary Frances Lynch, neonatologist at Cook Children's Medical Center. "Separation now will benefit AmieLynn and JamieLynn by allowing them continue reaching important growth and development milestones in their individual health journeys." On the day of the surgery, there was an expansive team of medical professionals—three anesthesiologists, four pediatric surgeons, two plastic surgeons and 18 other clinical professionals. They were separated into two teams, one for each girl. Those in purple scrub hats were on JamieLynn's team, while Team AmieLynn wore green scrub hats, and all items associated with their surgery the twins' care was color-coordinated accordingly, even the girls' nails were painted in coordinating colors. Everyone worked together until the babies were separate, then each team focused solely on their assigned baby. In the coming weeks and months, AmieLynn and JamieLynn will continue to receive outstanding care from Cook Children's Medical Center's neonatology and NICU teams, focusing on their healing and continued growth and development. "Our Promise to this community and every family who seeks care under our blue peaks is to do everything for the child, and I'm so grateful this family trusted us to do everything we could to help change their girls' future," said Rick W. Merrill, President and CEO of Cook Children's Medical Health System. "This is a magical moment in Cook Children's history and really showcases the expertise of our medical staff and the highly advanced care we have to offer children and families in our community, state and all across the country." For more information visit . SOURCE Cook Children’s Medical Center

A Texas Medicaid program has spent $24 million to keep a toddler alive at Fort Worth, Texas-based Cook Children's Medical Center, the hospital said in an April 16 appeal cited by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Two-year-old Tinslee Lewis was born with a rare heart condition and has been at Cook Children's for most of her life. She has been kept alive with "extreme efforts," the hospital said in the appeal, in which it asked the court to quickly schedule a trial date to determine whether life support care can be removed. "Although this case has never been about money — and Cook Children's has never considered finances when making an end-of-life decision," the appeal says, "the State of Texas (through its manager of a Medicaid care program) is now threatening to interject the issue into this dispute." Trinity Lewis, Tinslee's mother, has argued that her daughter could get better and the hospital shouldn't be able to decide her fate. Tinslee breathes with a ventilator and is sedated but conscious, Ms. Lewis said in January 2020, and responds to touch and stimulation. However, the hospital says Tinslee can't feel anything except pain, with multiple physicians testifying that Tinslee has no chance of recovery. "This child should not be forced to endure this fate for months on end while this matter continues its creep through the legal system," the new appeal said. "Cook still appears intent on killing (Tinslee) at the first available opportunity with increasingly crass language and reasoning and hyperbolic, gross mischaracterizations and misrepresentations of her actual condition and prognosis," the mother's response to the new appeal reads. A Texas Medicaid manager is reviewing whether tax dollars should be spent on Tinslee's care "when such care is medically futile, far beyond the applicable medical standard of care and cannot impact her underlying condition," according to the hospital. In October 2019, Cook Children's Ethics Committee voted unanimously to end Tinslee's care, which is within the hospital's legal right if care is deemed futile. However, Ms. Lewis fought back, with her attorney filing an injunction against the hospital in November 2019. In January 2020, a 48th District Court in Fort Worth judge ruled that the hospital could end life support, a decision that was later reversed by the Second Appellate District of Texas in Fort Worth. In October, the Texas Supreme Court denied the hospital's petition to take Tinslee off life support, and in January, the federal Supreme Court also rejected the hospital's plea. The case now returns to the lower court for a final ruling.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Cook Children's Medical Center will soon house the only combined IMRIS Intraoperative MRI (iMRI) operating room/diagnostic room in the world. The iMRI enables surgeons to view high- resolution patient scans during brain surgery leading to improved patient outcomes. "Cook Children's pediatric neuroscience department annually cares for approximately 16,000 children, making the program one of the largest in the Southwest," said David Donahue, M.D., Director of Neurosurgery on the medical staff at Cook Children's. "The addition of the iMRI demonstrates the institution's commitment to the care of neurological and neurosurgical disorders." The iMRI will occupy a two-room suite allowing the 1.5 Tesla MRI magnet, suspended from tracks in the ceiling, to glide in and out of the operating room. The system provides surgeons with exquisite digital images of the brain during surgery. Surgeons can employ computer-guided software to better determine the location, size, and often complex shape of a brain tumor, as well as a distinction between the tumor and healthy tissue. When the magnet is not being used in surgery, it can move to the adjacent diagnostic imaging suite where neuroscientists can perform complex functional and anatomic imaging. This will be especially beneficial to Cook Children's epilepsy patients, extending the diagnostic power of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. "The most common uses for the iMRI system at Cook Children's will involve surgical treatment of epilepsy and resection of brain tumors," said Donahue. "In the latter application, intraoperative images provided by the iMRI allow surgeons to detect and remove residual tumors which may not be readily apparent, even to the experienced eye; surgery can continue until all the tumor has in fact been removed, avoiding another trip to the operating room." The iMRI is scheduled to be operational in February and is part of a $9.7 million suite. It is estimated that hundreds of children who suffer from epilepsy, brain tumors, hydrocephalus and other neurological problems will benefit from the iMRI technology at Cook Children's. The 16-month Austin Roberts Refuse to Lose Campaign, launched in 2005, raised more than $4.5 million and helped bring the iMRI to Cook Children's. About Cook Children's Health Care System Cook Children's Health Care System is one of the country's leading integrated pediatric health care delivery systems. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, the non-profit System includes a nationally recognized Medical Center, Physician Network, Home Health Company, Heath Plan and Health Foundation. Cook Children's mission is to improve the health of children through the prevention and treatment of illness, disease and injury. Cook Children's includes more than 35 pediatric medical offices and specialty clinics throughout Texas. Cook Children's Medical Center is ranked in the top 3-percent of the world's hospitals for its nursing excellence and has a distinguished reputation for the uncommon care and outcomes achieved in its neurology, cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, neonatology, hematology/oncology and pulmonology programs. For more information about Cook Children's, please call 1-800-934-COOK (2665) or visit . Cook Children's Health Care System CONTACT: media, Wini King of Cook Children's Health Care System,+1-682-885-4107, or cell, +1-214-478-1140, or W-King@cookchildrens.org Web site: