Slideshow: Transition Medicine

Ann Ligums was worried when she and her husband moved to Houston earlier this year, bringing along their profoundly disabled son Benjamin. Ben has a rare degenerative brain disease that has left him immobile, non-verbal and legally blind, and he needs highly specialized care.

They lucked out at the one-of-a-kind Baylor Transition Medicine Clinic. The facility was founded by Dr. Cynthia Peacock to meet the complex care needs of disabled young adults who, until recently, didn't even survive through childhood.

The transition medicine clinic solves part of the problem; its doctors have become experts in the medical challenges of chronically ill children living into adulthood. But even they can't get around the limits of adult Medicaid, which effectively slashes services in half the moment a disabled child turns 21.

Ligums knows these challenges firsthand. But she says having doctors who understand Ben — and help the family battle the bureaucracy — is a godsend. Follow Ligums and Ben through a recent visit to the Transition Medicine Clinic.