Society for Pediatric Anesthesia
We make anesthesia for children safer

With great sadness, we inform you of the passing on Aug. 29 of Desmond Henry, M.D., retired Children’s Health Anesthesiologist-in-Chief and Professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology and Pain Management, UT Southwestern.

Dr. Henry joined Children’s Health and UT Southwestern in September 2007. He served as our Anesthesiologist-in-Chief for 10 years, retiring Dec. 31, 2017.

During his tenure with Children’s Health, Dr. Henry helped grow the Anesthesiology program, adding providers of not only the crucial medication for surgical procedures but also sedation in other areas including Radiology, Hematology-Oncology and Pain Management. Among his many contributions, he served as Medical/Dental Staff President in 2015.

Dr. Henry, who was fluent in Spanish, received his medical degree from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara School of Medicine, then completed pediatric and anesthesiology residencies at the University of California Irvine Medical Center and a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia and pediatric critical care medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Before coming to Children’s Health, Dr. Henry was chief of Anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver for 10 years.

Dr. Henry’s family expressed gratitude to Children’s Health for supporting him throughout his illness. They also shared that his time at Children’s Health and UT Southwestern was “the fondest of his professional career” because of relationships that transcended friendship and became akin to family.

Written by: Ethan L Sanford, MD and Peter Szmuk MD UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Courtesy of: Pediatric Anesthesia Article of the Day

 

It is with incredible sadness that we learned there was a missile attack on July 8th on the largest Children’s Hospital in Ukraine, Okhmatdyt National Children’s Hospital. As an organization that works daily to protect and care for children, it is truly horrifying to witness acts such as this. Children should never be targets of violence, a sentiment that we have had to repeat too many times over the last few years.

SPA had the honor to host Dr. Andrii Vysotskyi, a pediatric anesthesiologist from Okhmatdyt, as the Distinguished International Scholar in Anaheim this Spring. There, he delivered a moving talk about living in a war zone and caring for the children of Ukraine.  It is our understanding that he is safe and suffered only minor injuries in the attack though others were not so lucky. We would encourage everyone to rewatch his lecture and the entire session that he participated in to see his incredible work in a war-torn area. The link for the session is below.

SPA will be donating $5,000 to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital to assist them as they begin to recover from this senseless attack. As always, we support healthcare providers and the children they care for in war zones around the world.

If you would like to donate individually, use the links below or find another organization of your choice:

Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital
https://www.ohmatdytfund.org/en/donate 
https://ohmatdyt.com.ua/terminova-potreba/

Save the Children
https://www.savethechildren.org/

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JULY 2024
SPA-AAP Pediatric Anesthesiology 2024
SESSION I: Healthcare in a Time of Crisis – Experiences in Ukraine
Moderators: Mohammed Iqbal Ahmed, MBBS; Yuanting Zha, MD

International Scholar Lecture – Providing Care in Ukraine
Andrii Vysotskyi, MD

Heading Into a War Zone – Medical Mission in Ukraine
Clementine Vo, DO