Bactrim Lung Failure Team
About the Team
Jenna Miller, MD, FAAP and Jennifer Goldman, MD, MSCR first described severe respiratory failure after Bactrim (Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole) exposure in 2019. In 2018, one of Dr. Miller's long term extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) patients was featured in a CNN Health article as she walked and talked about her experience while using the lung bypass machine. Her story caught the attention of other patients and families who felt like her tale was like their own. They, too, shared stories that often lead to severe lung failure requiring ECMO or lung transplant, with some cases ending in death.
After discussing with friend and co-collaborator, Dr. Goldman, Dr. Miller and the team reviewed the cases of those who reached out. They published five pediatric cases in Pediatrics in 2019. The more they were able to share concerns about Bactrim as a trigger for severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the more requests for patient evaluations were received. In 2021, they published cases of young adults and described associated pathology in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The pathology first reported by their colleagues, Martin Taylor, MD, PhD, Angela Shih, MD, and Mari Mino-Kenudson, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, is called Diffuse Alveolar Injury with Delayed Epithelialization. With the addition of a genomic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) marker discovered in collaboration with the Genomic Medicine Center and Tomi Pastinen, MD, PhD, they developed a three-part definition that includes clinical, pathology and genomics explanations for the disease process. This clinical definition was published in Critical Care Medicine in 2023. In the summer of 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed the label for this drug to include this rare reaction and the team is in regular communication with the FDA regarding ongoing discovery.
Leaders
Jenna Miller, MD, FAAP is a physician within the Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. She is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (CMKC). She trained in Pediatric Critical Care at Texas Children’s Hospital with Baylor College of Medicine. Currently, she serves as the Pediatric ECMO Director at CMKC. Her clinical and research efforts are centered around defining and understanding a severe adverse drug reaction, Trimethoprim Sulfamethoxazole Associated Acute Respiratory Failure, and ECMO-related care and complications.
Jennifer Goldman, MD, MSCR is a physician within the Divisions of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Clinical Pharmacology at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. She is also a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Her clinical and research efforts are centered around individualizing antimicrobial treatment in children to avoid the unintended consequences of anti-infectives. She is investigating potential biomarkers that may predict and prevent severe adverse drug reactions. Dr. Goldman works with an amazing team to identify underreported adverse drug reactions, determine the epidemiology of these reactions, and investigate the biochemical and genetic factors associated with reaction risk. She currently serves as the Pediatric Health Organization Representative on the Pediatric Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration and as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs.
See more information about Dr. Goldman
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. Click the Find a Study link below and choose the "Severe respiratory illness: Exposure to an antibiotic called Bactrim" study.
Find a Study
Many of the studies that are currently enrolling patients at Children’s Mercy can be found in this database. Use this finder to learn more about the purpose of these studies and clinical trials, find out who can participate, and tell us you’re interested in enrolling.
Preventing Deadly Antibiotic Reactions in Children
Two Children’s Mercy doctors are on a crusade to address Bactrim-related deaths.
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Together, we’ll advance disease discovery and treatment to diagnose more children before it’s too late.
Contact
For other questions or concerns, please contact the Bactrim study team at BactrimADR@cmh.edu.
- Research Areas
- Labs and Research Teams
- ACCESS Behavioral Health Lab
- Baby Health and Behavior Lab
- Baby Lab
- Bactrim Lung Failure Team
- Behavioral Pain Innovations Lab
- Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition
- Community Engaged Research Team
- Developmental and Behavioral Health Research Group
- Fridley Lab
- Laboratory of Immunogenomics
- Milkovich Lab
- Nadler Lab
- Pediatric Brain Cancer Research Team/Yadav Lab
- Ramsey Lab
- Sullivant Lab
- Varberg Lab
- Younger Lab
Medical Director, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Services; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Associate Program Director, Clinical Pharmacology; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine