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Cystic Fibrosis

When illnesses like cystic fibrosis make life complicated, you want one thing for your child, the best care possible. That's why we built the Cook Children's Cystic Fibrosis Care Center.

We treat kids and adults from birth to nearly 80 years old, delivering access to the latest treatments, medicines and research, and providing the kind of care and support that helps our patients and their families to breathe easier, literally.

It wasn't that long ago that a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis (CF) meant most patients wouldn't survive more than a few years. And while CF is still a very serious life-threatening disease, thanks to the dedication of doctors and researchers around the world, many people with CF now live happy, productive lives into their 30s, 40s and sometimes beyond. Here at Cook Children's, our team of extraordinary specialists, nurses, therapists, dietitians and network of support are working together every single day to tackle this complex condition, and make childhood, and adulthood, a little simpler.

Choosing our care center

When you choose Cook Children's Cystic Fibrosis Care Center, you're getting more than diagnosis and treatment. We are one of only 110 CF programs across the nation to be accredited by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We are also one of only 96 of those programs treating adults. What this means to you is that you can trust that the care you receive comes from a top-rated team and program.

Expertise

Improving care for CF patients
The Fort Worth Cystic Fibrosis Center at Cook Children's currently has over 300 patients, ranging in age from newborn to nearly 80 years of age. As care for patients with CF has improved, so has their life expectancy. The life expectancy has increased to nearly 41 years old, up from 15 years old just 20 years ago. Cystic Fibrosis is no longer seen as a predominately pediatric disease now that half of the CF population is 18 years or older.

When your child is diagnosed with a serious illness, you want to know that the doctors and medical team treating her or him are the very best at what they do. Cook Children's pulmonary specialist are renowned across the nation for their excellent and tireless work in advancing treatments and research for those who are diagnosed with CF. It is this dedication that enabled us to become recognized as an accredited Cystic Fibrosis Care Center, a distinction which also expands the resources, knowledge and research available to our patients and their families. As such, we also attract top doctors, researchers, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, respiratory therapists and more. But the true test of our expertise is our patients and their families, many of whom grow up here, and some who like here so much, they wind up building their careers here too.

Collaborations

Many disciplines, one vision: a world free from the complications of CF.

Medicine has come far in the treatment of CF. In fact, in 2012, the CF Center reported that the average life expectancy of CF patients is now 41.1 years of age, a long way from the early years when most parents were told their child wouldn't even live long enough to make it to kindergarten. But we still have a long way to go.

Because CF most typically affects the lungs and airways, all our CF doctors specialize in pulmonology, and our CF team has done extensive practice and research in this particular illness. Since CF often involves many other areas of the body, the unique collaboration among our team extends across the many disciplines related to CF, such as gastroenterology, infectious disease, endocrinology, nephrology and other medical and support services our patients may need. Working all together we are confident we will accomplish the goal.

To ensure success, we have reached well beyond the boundaries of our walls to collaborate with great institutions within our region, as well nationally ... and in some cases, internationally. We are continually expanding our research opportunities, bringing the best therapies home to our patients.

Making CF stand for Cure Found. As an accredited CF Center, Cook Children's is involved in research and clinic trials to discover new medicines and treatments and eventually, to find a cure. Learn more about our research and clinic trials here.

We're all in this together

But collaboration doesn't stop here. It also means partnering with the most important group of all, the patients and families at Cook Children's. After all, that's why we're here ... to unite in the fight against CF, to treat and someday cure as many kids as possible. And to bring hope and caring to of even the most difficult journeys.

That means bringing as much childhood as possible into each day, which we do through our Child Life services, Child Life Zone, onsite library, arts therapies and more. Our social services team is available around the clock to help families deal with the day-to-day and long-term challenges they face. And we even have special programs just for siblings.

Working closely with patients and families to educate them on medications, breathing treatments, diet, exercise and the many lifestyle changes they will encounter helps ensure that our highly trained specialists meet the holistic needs of those we care for during and long after their hospital stays.

Finally, we join with the community to make a difference through large and small efforts. From Ronald McDonald House to community events to the generosity of philanthropy, we are all contributing to better outcomes today ... and to a future where we can all breathe easier. Together we are making a difference.

We're here to help.

If you have been told your child might have CF, we know you have lots of questions. We can help. To schedule an appointment, refer a patient or speak to our staff, please call our offices at 682-885-6299. After hours and on weekends/holidays, call 682-885-4000 and ask the operator to page the pulmonologist on call.