AUSTIN (August 12, 2010)--DerekScott “Bubba” Kirby, 3, of Goldthwaite, who spent the last month fighting for his young life at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, was transferred Thursday to a pediatric hospital in Dallas.

According to Facebook postings, Bubba was being transferred by ambulance from Dell to the Baylor Health System’s Our Children’s House in Dallas.

Bubba contracted E. coli from the floor of a rodeo arena after he ended up with a mouthful of dirt when he was thrown from a sheep during a mutton-busting event and then developed serious complications that caused his kidneys to shut down and led to a stroke.

He’s one of the 5 to 10 percent of E. coli patients who develop a potentially life-threatening complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome, which develops when E. coli bacteria lodged in the digestive tract make toxins that enter the bloodstream and start to destroy red blood cells.

For much of his stay at Dell, he was unconscious and on dialysis.

As he began to recover, he faced another rough patch as doctors weaned him from the pain medication he received.

Goldthwaite residents have been holding carwashes and other benefits, selling T-shirts and praying for the youngster since learning of Bubba’s plight.

Word of the little boy’s fight has spread well beyond the town of 1,800 however, thanks to a Facebook page, Bubba’s Angels, which had more than 7,200 followers from around the country Thursday.