Dien Ngoc Vu, MD

Dr. Smithers is an associate professor of surgery and director of the Esophageal and Airway Treatment (EAT) Program in the Department of Surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital since 2019. He was honored for Innovations in Clinical Care at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards for 2020. As a leader in both innovation and expertise for pediatric thoracic surgery, he and his team see patients from all over the United States and internationally. The team also makes several invited trips per year around the country and world for lectures and conferences, in addition to helping patients and teaching other surgical teams regarding complex esophageal and airway surgical techniques in the operating room. Dr. Smithers previously served as assistant professor of surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital from 2009-2019, as part of their groundbreaking EAT program. His clinical specialties are congenital and acquired conditions of the esophagus and airway, vascular rings, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), surgical critical care, and minimally invasive surgery. He earned his medical degree from Albany Medical College and completed his residency in general surgery at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. He served as fellow in pediatric surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital after completing a research fellowship and a surgical critical care fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. He also completed a global surgery clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Caitlin Henderson, MSN, APRN, PNP-AC/PC, is a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner who provides care for patients in the Esophageal and Airway Treatment Program at Johns Hopkins All Children’s. Henderson joined the hospital staff in 2012 and treated patients in the pediatric intensive care unit prior to joining the EAT team. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Florida State University, and Master of Science in Nursing, dual pediatric acute/primary care nurse practitioner track, from University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Khan is a pediatric cardiologist who specializes in heart failure and transplantation. She sees patients as part of the Heart Transplant Program at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute. She joined the hospital staff in 2021. Dr. Khan earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University, Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. She completed a pediatric residency at SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York, followed by a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and a fellowship in pediatric heart failure and transplant at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.