Texas

North Texas doctor helps parents facing infant loss deal with the unimaginable

Published

9 months ago

February 25, 2025

North Texas doctor helps parents facing infant loss deal with the unimaginable

After healthy pregnancies with her first two children, Yvette Ngo felt she knew what to expect when she found out she was expecting her third.

She surprised her husband Thomas by tucking a positive pregnancy test into an Amazon box.

The Arlington couple shared the news in their annual Christmas card. They celebrated their gender reveal with pink confetti. And they eagerly awaited the arrival of the baby girl they planned to name Zoey.

A life-changing phone call

But a 20-week anatomy scan revealed problems with Zoey’s heart and kidney, leading to further testing. When Yvette Ngo received a call from the genetics counselor, she remembers being asked if her husband was available.

“I said, ‘Oh, he’s at work right know, but you could tell me.’ And she said ‘I’d like for you to try to get your husband,’” Yvette said. “At that moment I knew there was some bad news coming.”

Zoey had Trisomy 13, a rare genetic condition that affects development of the heart, brain and other organs. In most cases, it results in a miscarriage. When babies do survive birth, it’s often not for long.

After pressing for more help, the family met with neonatologist Dr. Terri Weinman. Her specialty is helping families navigate the unthinkable, providing palliative care, or hospice, to the smallest of patients.

“What I do is meet with families who are pregnant with a child who has been diagnosed with a condition that is scary,” Weinman said. “And can help that family understand this might, in fact, be a life-limiting diagnosis for your baby.”

Palliative care for infants

Weinman said providing palliative care to infants is a hard job, and one that did not exist 20 years ago. That is when Weinman said she first noticed she and her colleagues had different ways of caring for newborns who were unlikely to survive. She learned about palliative care as a specialty, but at the time it was mainly for adults with terminal illnesses, not for young children.

For two years, she spent her evenings after work with a team of healthcare providers offering hospice care to adults while looking for ways to adapt the practice for her pediatric patients.

“We’re so focused on the medicine part of it, that we weren’t focusing on the human part of it,” Weinman said.

She created a list of questions to review with parents — from what interventions they want to take to what memories they want to create.

“When we met Dr. Weinman and her team the first time, she would say things like, ‘So, what are we going to do when Zoey is here,’ which changed my mindset completely,” Yvette Ngo said. “Before then I hadn’t even thought about that. I was expecting the worst.”

For the first time, the Ngos began to consider what Zoey’s life, short as it might be, could look like.

“It made us more comfortable with the situation, I mean as comfortable as you can be,” Thomas Ngo said. “She just gave us hope.”

Zoey was born on April 18, 2024. She met her parents, her siblings and her grandparents. She was baptized.

“They made us little crafts and mementos for us to take home, like footprints, really ways to help cherish Zoey’s life,” Yvette Ngo said. “They took her heartbeat and recorded it for us. Little things that we wouldn’t necessarily think of.

Zoey even had a chance to go home. But after 36 hours of life, Zoey passed away in her father’s arms.

The perinatal palliative care Zoey received remains rare. But for families like the Ngos, it provides a small sense of control when it’s needed most.

“Being able to plan so much in advance and think about all the different scenarios and how we wanted it,” Yvette Ngo said. ” I think, looking back on our time with Zoey…”

“We wouldn’t have done anything differently,” Thomas Ngo said.

This is part three of three in our series about the work being done by local health experts to address rising infant mortality rates. See more from this series here.

Andrea Lucia

Andrea Lucia joined CBS 11 and TXA 21 in September 2010, one day before a tornado swept through the area. She’s been covering major stories across North Texas ever since.

Source link

Click to comment

Texas

Look: Texas A&M coach Mike Elko snips in press conference after Texas trolls

Published

4 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Press Room

Look: Texas A&M coach Mike Elko snips in press conference after Texas trolls

Texas football welcomed Mike Elko to his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day on Black Friday.

As the Longhorns took the final kneels to secure a 27-17 win over Texas A&M to knock the Aggies out of the land of unbeaten college football teams, the video board at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas trolled Elko.

Texas played a short clip of Elko calling Texas A&M “the flagship program of the state” last year, with a voiceover saying “Sike” about his comments. That was met by loud cheers from the fans as Texas earned the win.

It only got worse for Elko from there. Following the loss, he lost his cool during his press conference over the noise of the Longhorns celebrating their win over the Aggies.

The loss for Texas A&M knocked to rival Texas knocked it out of the SEC Championship game.

“Can we close the door and run a professional press conference?” Elko asked mid-answer.

The good news for Elko and the Aggies: They closed out the season with an 11-1 record, including a 7-1 record in SEC play. Texas A&M has secured a spot in the College Football Playoff and, barring a major upset, should at least have a home first-round game, if not a bye in the opening round.

Source link

Texas

How to Watch Temple vs North Texas: Live Stream NCAA College Football, TV Channel

Published

22 hours ago

November 28, 2025

Press Room

The North Texas Mean Green (10-1) looks for a program-record 11th win and a spot in the American championship game on Friday afternoon when they host a Temple Owls (5-6) squad still trying to become bowl eligible after three straight losses.

How to Watch Temple vs North Texas

When: Friday, November 28, 2025
Time: 3:30 PM ET
TV Channel: ESPN
Live Stream: Fubo (try for free)

North Texas won its fifth straight game on Saturday night, rolling to a 56-24 road victory at Rice after erasing an early 14-0 deficit. Drew Mestemaker threw for 469 yards, finishing 19-of-23 with three touchdowns, and also ran for a score. Caleb Hawkins ran for 97 yards and three TDs on 20 carries, and Ashton Gray also had a rushing touchdown. Wyatt Young had a huge night with eight catches for 295 yards and two scores, and Tre Williams III caught a TD pass.

Temple’s slide continued on Saturday with a 37-13 loss to visiting Tulane. Evan Simon threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns, but the running game was limited to just 20 yards. Colin Chase and Peter Clarke made scoring catches in the loss. Simon absorbed four sacks before he was pulled from the game.

Eric Morris was announced on Tuesday as the new head coach at Oklahoma State and will leave North Texas at the end of the season. The Mean Green haven’t won a conference title since the 2004 Sun Belt championship and have a simple win-and-in scenario to reach the American championship game. They are 2-0 all-time against Temple, including a 24-17 road win on Nov. 30.

This is a great college football matchup that you will not want to miss; make sure to tune in and catch all the action.

Live stream Temple vs North Texas on Fubo: Start your subscription now!

Fubo is the place for wall-to-wall college football coverage. They bring you the biggest games and the best teams across the country from a wide range of conferences. Stream every snap on top channels like ABC, FOX, CBS, ESPN, SEC Network, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, FS1, and more.

Regional restrictions may apply. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

Source link

Texas

Guidelines for Texas’ controversial school voucher program released

Published

2 days ago

November 27, 2025

Press Room

Guidelines for Texas’ controversial school voucher program released

TEXAS (KTRK) — The State Comptroller’s Office has released guidelines for the Texas Education Freedom Accounts. This program is also referred to as school choice or school vouchers, and has stirred up controversy.

It’s funded through $1B taxpayer dollars, and while proponents say it gives families the choice to pick the best education for their child, critics have said it takes money away from already underfunded and struggling public school systems.

This program is open to students in pre-K through high school. Standard students who wish to attend a state-approved private school can receive approximately $10,800 per child, per year.

Students with disabilities or additional learning needs must have their individual education program, or IEP, on file with the school district to be eligible for up to $30,000 per student, per year

And homeschooled children can get up to $2,000 per child, per year.

SEE ALSO: Private school vouchers are now law in Texas. Here’s how they will work

State law dictates that priority will be given to children who have siblings already in the program and based on income and the federal poverty line. If more students enroll than funding allows, a lottery will be instituted.

Eyewitness News previously reported that the funds would probably fund around 90,000 students, even though the Texas Education Agency estimated in 2024 that over 5 million school-aged children live in Texas.

The first important enrollment date comes for private schools and vendors who want to accept voucher students, and is part of the one billion dollars the state is pouring into it. The State Comptroller’s office says schools and vendors can start signing on through Odyssey on Dec. 9. Odyssey is the company the state selected to run the voucher lottery and operate a platform that allows families to spend the money awarded to them by the state.

The second important date comes for families, which is Feb. 4. That’s when families can start signing up students. The State Comptroller said this gives the state and families ample time to make decisions ahead of the 2026-27 school year

The State Comptroller said schools that wish to apply for the program must have a Texas location and have been accredited for at least two years, but this applies to schools both in and outside of Texas, so in theory, a program accredited outside of Texas could build a campus in the state this year and still be eligible.

SEE ALSO: ABC13 obtains exclusive HISD student enrollment records for 2025-26 school year

The state is also dictating that private schools wishing to be a part of the program will have to administer an assessment to voucher students in grades 3 through 12

The program will be monitored by the State Comptroller’s office, which will partner with a private group to audit the program at least once a year.

State education groups pushed the state to be more transparent about how families were spending money and where, though our partners at the Houston Chronicle note the state rejected those ideas.

For more news updates, follow Lileana Pearson on Facebook, X and Instagram.

Source link