Dr. Trey Eubanks on the future of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital

For the 13th consecutive year, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, featuring its expert physicians, staff and volunteers, is ranked as 2023 and 2024 Best Children’s Hospitals by U.S. News and World report.

Of course, Le Bonheur’s success depends on your generosity to serve 250,000 children a year, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

Tonight, in this Go Jim Go profile, WREG’s Alex Coleman takes us inside Le Bonheur to talk with Dr. Trey Eubanks, the hospital’s surgeon-in-chief and its new president.

Inside of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, it’s rare to find Dr. Trey Eubanks just seated behind a desk working on his computer. That’s because he’s usually making the rounds, interacting with patients, staff and a team of health experts.

After serving as interim president, the north Mississippi native was recently named Le Bonheur’s new president. For him, it’s personal.

“This hospital is dear to me because I know the important role it plays in this community, and how desperately, our community needs great health care for children,” Eubanks said. “And so I, couldn’t say no to that.”

Dr. Eubanks sees Le Bonheur as a calling for him and the hospital’s team of specialists.

“We want to have the best surgeons. We want to have the best neurologists, the best cardiologists, the best nephrologists, the best intensive care unit doctors that we can get, and so that we can provide the best care for all the kids that may come across our door,” he said.

Dr. Eubanks proudly took WREG on a tour of the 12-story hospital and gave his diagnosis on the state of the region’s only comprehensive children’s facility.

“Addressing things like preventive health, food shortages, taking, children that are at risk for certain diseases and trying to take them out of those at risk situations,” he said. “But then again, when there is a need, we’ve got to always be here. you know, our doors are always open.”

Le Bonheur, in case you’re wondering, is a French term that means “happiness,” and that happiness and a feeling of home is seen in the artwork throughout the building, and in a new family waiting room and courtyard, along with a chapel for praying.

It’s about caring not only for the child, but the family as well.

“Oftentimes, we’re treating the family more than just the child. So it’s patient and family centered care is our goal,” Eubanks said.

The goal of family and patient centered care extends far beyond Memphis by partnering with regional hospitals in Jackson, Jonesboro, and Tupelo as Le Bonheur also expands here in the Bluff City.

“We’re adding more, physician staff, nursing staff, experts in seizure disorder and tumors and, congenital heart disease and things like that, filling and expansion,” Eubanks said.

Back in May, Le Bonheur unveiled its $95 million expansion, its largest since the current hospital facility opened in 2010, with a major focus now on the Heart Institute adding 31 new beds..

“That is going to take care of some of the sickest, children with, either congenital heart disease or children that have been heart failure and need a heart transplant or, you know, our heart transplant program has been going on for some time now, and it’s really been strong,” Eubanks said.

He says what’s also strong is the neonatal intensive care unit, expanding from what had been a 60 bed unit, to 74 beds, and adding this new MRI guided catheterization lab.

In what looks like something from a sci-fi movie or a video game, Le Bonheur is using innovative technology to create this state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Lab. Surgeons wear VR headsets, use video controllers and TV monitors to build a 3-D model and peak inside a patient’s heart.

“You can use the VR to see where a valve should be replaced, where actually a stitch should be thrown or should not be thrown, or a device should be placed in with a precision that’s going to allow us to do even cooler, more effective treatments in the future,” Eubanks said.

But hospital expansion, innovative technology and basic patient care don’t come cheap.

It’s why Dr. Eubanks says WREG’s “Go Jim Go” Bike Ride campaign helps get the community involved in raising money for Le Bonheur and many of its vital programs.

“Obviously, it helps raise money for Le Bonheur. It allows people to have a sense of community because it’s like I’m helping my community, my children’s hospital and it’s fun,” he said.

Eubanks says his diagnosis is positive for Le Bonheur, the children’s hospital with the giant heart on the building that serves as a beacon of hope for thousands of kids and their families.

“Yeah, the diagnosis looks good, and the future is bright. And we’re very excited.”

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