Preventing Deadly Antibiotic Reactions in Children
Two Children’s Mercy doctors on a crusade to address Bactrim-related deaths
Zei was Patient Zero.
A healthy high school student, Zei, quickly became dramatically ill and was life-flighted to Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
Zei’s lungs were failing and she required the highest level of life support, ECMO, to survive, but every diagnostic test came back “normal.” Doctors were stumped.
As Zei made national headlines and was hospitalized for 457 days, Dr. Jenna Miller made a startling discovery – before becoming ill, Zei had been prescribed Bactrim for a urinary tract infection.
In the first ever reported case, Dr. Miller diagnosed Zei with Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure. Sadly, Zei passed away from this deadly drug reaction.
Today, there are 30 confirmed cases of Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure, but we know it is underreported and often underrecognized, which is why we need your help!
Meet the team
Two women physicians in Kansas City are leading the fight against easily preventable death.
Meet the remarkable team led by Dr. Jenna Miller and Dr. Jen Goldman.
A journey to stop preventable death
Bactrim is an often-prescribed medication for bacterial infections, including as treatment for acne, UTIs and much more.
But it can lead to life-threatening lung failure.
Children’s Mercy Kansas City is at the forefront of this discovery, the only institution leading Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure diagnosis, treatment and advocacy:
Action plan
World-leading experts at Children’s Mercy Kansas City are hard at work to prevent this life-threatening drug reaction.
With a $5 million funding goal, your gift will:
- Scale patient identification to help more patients across the country and world.
- Enroll and evaluate patients throughout the country.
- Manage a research database to further understand this deadly reaction.
- Perform world-leading genomic analysis to diagnosis more children before it’s too late.
- Create treatment protocols for hospitals around the country and world to use treating this reaction.
- Provide a genomic test prior to prescribing Bactrim to ensure all children with a genetic-predisposition to a life-threatening drug response don’t receive the medication.
Donate
Join us to save lives.
Together, we’ll advance disease discovery and treatment to diagnose more children before it’s too late.
Submit your case
Do you suspect your loved one or someone you know might have Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure? We know this is a very underreported and often underrecognized disease, so please reach out!
Submit their case to add to our body of research providing hope to future families.
The many faces of Bactrim
Abigail
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Abigail, age 10, was prescribed Bactrim for folliculitis on the scalp only a couple of weeks after receiving her green belt in karate. Three weeks later, she was in the ICU, intubated, coded and placed on ECMO. After nine days on ECMO, she sadly passed away with no answers for what attacked Abigail’s lungs.
Nine months after Abigail’s death, her mom saw the CNN article about Zei, patient zero. Several months later, Dr. Miller’s team determined she was a victim of Bactrim’s devastating effect on lung tissue.
“Knowing why she died has aided in our healing. We are forever grateful. And we are hopeful that widespread knowledge of this reaction will prevent another family from being doubted when questioning a Bactrim reaction.” – Aimee, Abigail’s mom
Emmie
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Emmie was a healthy, active, athletic 12-year-old girl who loved dance and gymnastics and had just made the school cheerleading squad. She was prescribed Bactrim for acne and developed a fever within two weeks. Her illness progressed, she was admitted to the hospital ICU and placed on ECMO. After seeking advice from Dr. Jenna Miller at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Emmie was able to come off ECMO after 72 days and is continuing to recover.
“We’ve been through hell and back. Emmie wants to share her story and she wants people to learn from her journey. ECMO doesn’t mean it’s the end; ECMO can be just the beginning.” – Ashlee, Emmie’s mom
How you can help
Donate
Join us to save lives.
Together, we’ll advance disease discovery and treatment to diagnose more children before it’s too late.
Submit your case
Do you suspect your loved one or someone you know might have Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure? We know this is a very underreported and often underrecognized disease, so please reach out!
Submit their case to add to our body of research providing hope to future families.
Spread the word
Too few families and physicians know of, or understand, Bactrim-Associated Lung Failure.
Send this website to others to help spread the word and save lives.