From the Editor | Fall 2020
Happy autumn Central Texas. The Fall 2020 issue of Tex Appeal features a lot of great stories about our local healthcare professionals—the heroes who have been on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Karen Brust, of Baylor Scott & White Health, shared her experience with planning the local response to COVID-19 and why the health system was fully prepared to handle the pandemic when it hit Central Texas.
Tony Johnson, senior vice president of logistics and chief supply chain officer for the Baylor Scott & White Health Service Company, talked with us about the organization’s large distribution center in Temple, telling us how medical supplies are inventoried and distributed to the BSWH hospitals and clinics in Texas within just hours of the placement of online orders.
McLane Children’s Hospital’s Dr. George Dubrocq discusses the transfer of COVID-19 from mother to baby in utero, and Dr. Ashis Barad has been vital in transforming pediatric care via video visits to ensure patients get safe care from home to keep up with chronic illness care and wellness visits.
We spent time with the folks at BSWH’s Sunshine Gift Shop to find out how they stayed open to keep up the spirits of the medical staff during the initial days of the pandemic.
Canyon Creek Behavioral Health is now open in Temple to provide mental health services to Central Texans, focusing on treatment of major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective, substance abuse/dependence, post-traumatic stress and severe anxiety.
We met an amazing third-year medical student at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center College of Medicine who is both future doctor and current soldier whose story began, literally, in a hurricane.
Known for his ability to explain complicated health issues in a way that the patient can understand, Dr. Senthil Sankaralingam of Wellstone Health Partners at Seton Medical Center Harker Heights spoke with us about his treatment philosophy of making sure patients understand what they’re going through so that they recover a lot better.
We bring you the story of Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Medical Center’s Kassidy Keathley, RN, who went to serve members of the Navajo Nation suffering from COVID-19 in Shiprock, N.M.
AdventHealth in Killeen opened its doors to us and invited us to interview Elysse Gutierrez, RN, who is an infection preventionist certified in infection control and instrumental in the hospital’s response to COVID-19.
If you’re looking for a different approach to your wellness needs, Equilibrium Squared Holistic Health is a membership-based practice that specializes in sports medicine. They accept pre-existing conditions, but don’t take insurance.
We feature two local artists, Joe Perez III of Killeen and Raymond Chapman of Belton. Perez specializes in graffiti wall murals all over Killeen, page 58, and Chapman turned his experience in sign making into an art career.
We took a break at Barrow Brewing Company in Salado, a place my husband and I love to go when we are in town, and sampled the craft beers and ales created by Graydon and KD Hill.
We caught up with Danielle Raesz who is training for the next American Ninja Warrior competition, an action-packed TV series that follows competitors as they tackle a series of challenging obstacle courses in city qualifying and city finals rounds across the country.
Drayton McLane Jr., philanthropist, former owner of the Houston Astros and chairman of the McLane Group in Temple, invites you to find out what Being Central Texan means to him.
Daytrippin’ takes you paintballing on the Erath-Hamilton county line in a way you’ve never paintballed before: in mini-tanks.
The Review tells you about the book, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World. We thought it looked pretty interesting in light of the current pandemic and it certainly was.
I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we have enjoyed putting it together. As always, if you have a story idea for me, shoot me an email at: editor@texappealmag.com or call me at 254-774-5266. I’d love to hear from you.
Janna Zepp