Hurricane Irma resulted in the evacuation of 6.3 million people in Florida in September, 2017. Our tertiary Children's Hospital activated our incident command center (ICC) 24 hours before storm landfall, and preparations were made to accommodate vulnerable pediatric patients (VPP) or children with medical complexity. Our ICC was active for 92 hours and the hospital was staffed with 467 associates and 40 physicians. Urgent operative and interventional radiology procedures were performed during the storm. Thirteen patients were transferred to our facility and 13 VPP were sheltered. During the lockdown period, our facility operated at 90 per cent capacity inclusive of VPP. Personnel were used in critical areas in the hospital, independent of their base units. There were no adverse outcomes or complications. Timely activation of ICC and deployment of Team A 24 hours before storm hit allowed for safe hospital operations. Planning for the inflow of patients is imperative to allow for preemptive deployment of staff and resources for inpatients, transfers, emergency room admissions, and VPP. VPP should be monitored regionally as they will consume hospital resources during natural disasters and must be accounted for to allow for safe and effective care delivery for all patients.

A trichobezoar is a rare cause of abdominal pain due to an indigestible mass in the gastrointestinal tract that is composed of a patient's hair. If a trichobezoar grows and extends from the gastric body to the pylorus and into the small bowel, it is considered Rapunzel syndrome. We present a case of an 11-year-old female patient with Rapunzel syndrome who presented with four weeks of colicky abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, and severe malnutrition. Computed tomography of the abdomen and pelvis with 3D rendering demonstrated a large bezoar, and the patient was successfully treated with exploratory laparotomy, gastrostomy, and removal of the trichobezoar intact.

Although perforated appendicitis in pediatric patients can result in a diverse array of complications, scrotal abscess is a rarely documented phenomenon. We present a case of acute scrotum after laparoscopic appendectomy. A retrospective review of prior literature on scrotal abscess secondary to perforated appendicitis was performed via PubMed to review the clinical presentation, etiology, type of treatment and outcome of pediatric patients. Patients without a patent processus vaginalis still require vigilant follow-up postoperatively to ensure timely intervention if scrotal pain develops during recovery.

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