Austin, TX
Dell Children’s Medical Center doubles space for its cardiac critical care unit in Austin
Dell Children’s adds second cardiac critical care unit
Unit doubles the number of beds dedicated to heart patients.
Dell Children’s Medical Center doubled the number of its cardiac critical care unit beds last week from 24 to 48 by opening a new unit in its main hospital.
The new unit takes over a space that was part of the pediatric intensive care unit, which moved after the fourth tower opened in November 2022.
The doubling of the critical care unit comes five years after the launch of the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, a joint project of the hospital and UT Health Austin, the clinical arm of Dell Medical School.
The center has now done more than 2,000 heart surgeries, including 30 heart transplants and all the mechanical intervention surgeries that can be done as well as a partial heart transplant. It now had delivered babies in the hospital who were diagnosed with heart programs as fetuses and then are taken immediately to surgery at birth.
“Because of their expertise, we’ve had to expand,” said Michael Wiggins, the president of Dell Children’s, about the cardiac team. “It is a milestone on our path and our commitment to delivering the highest level and most comprehensive heart care to families in Central Texas.”
The program has grown faster than anyone anticipated, getting to mechanical devices and heart transplants years before Dr. Charles Fraser Jr., the head of the cardiac program, thought they would.
“Who would have thought we would be here five years ago, opening up our 48th dedicated critical care bed for children, adults, patients and families with congenital heart disease?” Fraser said.
In first 5 years of heart program, Dell Children’s has surprised even itself. Where it’s headed.
He pointed to the dozens of nurses, doctors and fellows who gathered for the opening on Thursday: “None of them were here five years ago,” he said.
The growth he said, “is driven by the need, the need of patients and families,” he said.
Patients are coming from throughout Texas, neighboring states and even Europe, South America and Africa for cardiac care.
Because the center outgrew the cardiac critical care unit, it has had to control how many patients could enter its program. “You’ve got to have a bed available,” said Dr. Chesney Castleberry, the medical director for the heart failure, VAD (ventricular assist device), and transplant program. Now, she’ll be able to bring in more kids as well as added staff.
First look: Inside the new Texas Children’s Hospital in Austin opening in February
The opening of a second unit puts critical cardiac patients in one space. Previously, the hospital had some of its critical cardiac patients housed throughout the hospital because it outgrew the original unit, which opened in 2019. Fraser expects this new unit will be full within a month. The hospital will make use of space in the neonatal intensive care unit, which also recently expanded, and the new pediatric intensive care unit, he said, when both cardiac units are full.
Ten of the new unit’s beds will be for children in heart failure, many of whom are waiting for a heart transplant. Patients typically wait three to four months for a heart once listed, and those too sick to be at home, move into the hospital until the transplant happens. With that in mind, Dell Children’s added showers to those rooms so family members can stay with their children and not only have the pull-out couch, but also a full bathroom.
“It’s their unit, it’s their hospital and we’re just lucky to participate in their lives,” Fraser said.
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Game Wardens stated Saturday evening that they have responded to multiple water-related fatalities and emergencies across the state.
These incidents include the areas of Lake Travis in Travis County, Lake Fryer in Ochiltree County, Galveston Bay in Galveston County, Benbrook Lake in Tarrant County, and Lake Jacksonville in Cherokee County.
ALSO: Marble Falls Area Fire Department dedicates new station to late chief
Texas Game Wardens also stated that many water-related tragedies are preventable. They encouraged people to take precautions including wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket, don’t boat under the influence of alcohol or drugs, keep a close eye on children, and be prepared for changing weather conditions.
Conditions can change quickly, and emergencies often happen with little warning.
Texas Materials is set to move around in the suburbs after the Cedar Park City Council approved a $13.8 million incentive package for its new headquarters.
The construction materials producer and supplier committed to doubling its employees, and will move its headquarters to the new Balcones Real Estate-developed Cedar Park Town Center, according to the Austin Business Journal. In total, the company employs 3,500 at upwards of 120 sites, and will increase their headquarters’ head count to over 169 employees. The Town Center’s office facility sits at 701 Central Park Drive and they’ll occupy 48,000 square feet.
Texas Materials is currently planning to move out of its old headquarters at 1320 Arrow Point Drive and move into the new digs by May 31, 2028, according to the outlet. The lease could be set in stone by July 31.
The incentives package is contingent on Texas Materials increasing the number of employees at its new headquarters, and the company is also eligible for sales tax revenue rebates. Additionally, if any employee purchases a home or residential lot in Cedar Park, Texas Materials is eligible for $10,000, capped at $500,000, according to the outlet.
The Cedar Park Town Center is still in the process of construction, and future development phases are spaced out over the next couple of years. The town expects to have 300,000 square feet of commercial development in the area by 2032.
The Texas Triangle in general, and the Austin metropolitan area specifically, is home to some of the fastest-growing suburbs in the country. Just to the northeast, Rockpoint, LCOR and Potomac Investment Properties are redeveloping two spots on Thomas Jefferson Street to a 299-unit residential complex. At home, General Investment and Development is putting a $65 million, 194-unit apartment complex in Bell District, with construction slated to be completed in late 2028.
— Hunter Cooke
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion Friday saying part of an Austin Energy code that went into effect last year conflicts with Texas law and is unenforceable, opening a new legal challenge for Austin’s push to make new buildings easier to electrify.
In April 2025, the Austin City Council adopted the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, which, among other things, created new “electric-ready” requirements for residential and commercial buildings that could make it easier for future owners to transition away from natural gas.
Weeks later, Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, asked Paxton whether those provisions conflicted with a 2021 state law prohibiting local governments from discriminating against utility services based on the type of energy used. In his opinion, Paxton concluded that they do.
Paxton wrote that Austin’s new electric-ready requirements have the “purpose, intent or effect” of discriminating against gas utilities, which conflicts with state law, a finding that could intensify the broader political fight over local control, consumer choice and the role of natural gas in Texas.
“We therefore conclude that the Utility Code’s broad prohibition renders (the provision) of the City’s ordinance unenforceable,” Paxton wrote.
Austin Energy did not respond to a request for comment late Friday afternoon.
State opinion escalates fight over Austin’s push toward electrification
It is unclear whether the city will challenge the attorney general’s interpretation in court. An attorney general’s opinion is not the same as a court ruling and does not become law, though agencies often take such opinions into account when making policy decisions.
In his letter to Paxton, Birdwell said House Bill 17, which passed in 2021, was drafted in response to the growing number of Texas cities restricting gas hook-ups in new buildings and was intended to “preserve customer choice and allow Texans to decide how to meet their own energy needs.”
He said Austin’s “electric-ready” provision would “severely affect commercial customers” by requiring additional electrical infrastructure to be installed alongside certain natural gas appliances, raising costs for customers planning to use natural gas for those appliances.
Paul Robbins, vice chair of the Resource Management Commission, argued the city’s intent in adopting the code was not to prohibit building owners from using natural gas, but instead to give them the option to transition to electrification in the future by requiring electrical infrastructure during construction.
“The city tried to pursue this in a fuel-neutral way,” Robbins said. “They did not say you cannot build gas homes; they said you have to give customers a choice, so that if they choose to go all-electric, then it doesn’t cost them a lot of money to rewire their house.”
Robbins said Austin’s approach was meant to expand options, not restrict them.
“You can make a cogent argument that not doing electrification is actually discriminatory.”
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