Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt

Emily Dunn, BSN, RN, works in the Pediatric Medicine Acute Care unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

Treatment options are limited for the more than 500,000 people in the U.S. who are diagnosed annually with C. diff infections, but researchers are working on potential vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and — most recently — nanobodies, to prevent and treat C. diff infections.

Alaina Curry, BSN, RN, works in the Pediatric Intensive Care unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. She is one of the latest Vanderbilt Health DAISY Award winners.

When Briceton Latta was born in 2006, the average life expectancy of a patient with CF was 37. Today, that expectancy is 65 and beyond.

“Burn found me — I didn’t really find it. It popped up in my life; I flew with it; and I don’t want to go back,” says the Credo Award winner.

More than 20 patients were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning in 24 hours early in the week when power began going out. Emergency physicians anticipate additional cases as temperatures are not expected to reach above freezing this week.

The infection can result from inhaling spores of the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which grows in soil throughout Middle Tennessee, especially in soil contaminated with bird or bat droppings. Previously, blood samples had to be sent to a reference lab in Utah.