AUSTIN (July 26, 2010)--DerekScott “Bubba” Kirby, 3, of Goldthwaite, who’s been fighting for his young life for several weeks at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, will be transferred Monday or Tuesday to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston where he can receive more specialized care, his mother, Deven Denman, said.

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.

He’s unconscious and on dialysis and had a rough run last week as doctors attempted to wean him from the pain medication he’s been receiving, his mother said.

Denman said Monday doctors were starting over on the weaning process after deciding they decreased dosages too quickly.

She said she’s grateful for all of the “wonderful work that has been done for Bubba,” but said the Houston hospital has a nephrologist with state-of the-art equipment to help with the youngster’s kidneys as well as a pain management team to take over the process of weaning from medication.

She said he will also require physical therapy.

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 4,600 followers from around the country Monday.