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'Children's' Doctor First Diagnosed 'Toxic Shock'

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Aug 13, 2008 10:13 pm US/Mountain

'Children's' Doctor First Diagnosed 'Toxic Shock'

Written by CBS4 special projects producer Vicki Hildner, vhildner@cbs.com

Reporting
Karen Leigh
  Editor Note: CBS4 is looking back at 100 years in the history of The Children's Hospital. In this story, we go back 30 years to a time when a Children's infectious disease physician first diagnosed and named a disease that now has become a household word.

DENVER (CBS4) ― Alison Rittner was just 12 years old when a young doctor saved her life.

"He was their last hope to figure out what was wrong. Without Dr. Todd I probably wouldn't be here today," Alison said.

In a little more than two years, Dr. James Todd had seen seven cases just like Alison. The children had a combination of high fever, sunburn-like rash, red eyes, dizziness and fainting. They went into shock and then died.

Alison Rittner had only a 50/50 chance of survival when she arrived at the hospital.

Night after night, Todd stayed up with the sick children trying to figure out what disease he was dealing with. For years, the disease stayed a mystery, until he put all the clues together and realized he was dealing with something unique and unnamed.

Todd remembers the point at which the clues finally led him to a solution.

"Fortune favors the prepared mind and there's nothing that prepares the mind more than being up at night in the middle of the intensive care unit with sick children worrying about them," he said.

Todd named the new disease "toxic shock syndrome" and published his research for the rest of the medical world. Media reports linked toxic shock to tampon use in young women, but actually three of the first seven cases Todd saw were boys.

"This is something that is really due to infection," Todd pointed out. "That infection can occur in a male or a female."

Today, Alison Rittner has grown up with young children of her own, but she has not forgotten the man who rescued her from near death. At a recent reunion with Todd at the new Children's Hospital, the two hugged and Alison introduced Todd to her own children who are now the same age she was when she got sick.

Todd took the Rittner family on a tour of the new hospital and talked about why it is such a pleasure to see Alison again.

"When a patient comes back years later and says, 'I wanted you to see my children,' it is incredibly gratifying,"" he said.

Today, Doctors know that toxic shock is caused by either staph or strep infections. The incidence of toxic shock has not decreased, but thanks to Todd's work at Children's, physicians can recognize the disease more quickly and treat it more effectively.

Alison knows that her children -- and the world's children -- will have a better chance to avoid and survive toxic shock thanks to a gentle doctor who solved a mystery and saved countless lives.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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