When my oldest daughter, Nora, was 7 weeks old, a trip to urgent care for a respiratory virus at 8 pm on Super Bowl Sunday resulted in an ambulance ride to the Emergency Room at Children’s St. Paul. She was treated with an oral steroid and nebulizer treatment, and we were nearly sent home, but an amazing nurse wanted to make sure that her oxygen levels didn't drop when she fell asleep. Because that exact scenario happened, she was admitted for what we thought would be an overnight stay.
She appeared to be doing well the next morning, but the attending physician decided that given her age, she should stay one more night. She took a turn for the worse overnight, and her nurse ordered a Pediatric Intensive Care consult. The PICU pulmonologist tested her blood gas levels, and determined that although her oxygen levels looked okay, she was not clearing carbon dioxide from her blood. He transferred her to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and warned us that she may need to be intubated and placed on a ventilator. The next morning, she did need to be intubated and put on a ventilator, to give her lungs and body a chance to rest and heal.
Her pulmonologist was amazed at how much support she needed from the ventilator - she was a little girl who didn't outwardly appear to be fighting as hard as she was to breathe. She spent 8 days in the PICU, and was on the ventilator for 7 of them. Bob and I stayed in her room pretty much 24/7 during that time (even when the radiology technicians threw a weighted blanket on us in the middle of the night so they could do a chest X-ray on Nora).
During this incredibly scary time, we felt so blessed to be so close to amazing pediatric medical care. The doctors and nurses were wonderful - they always took the time to talk us through what was going on, and answer any questions we had about her care and her condition. The social workers made sure all of our needs as a family were met, from making sure we had parking passes and access to food for a nursing mother, to notes for our employers, even down to a place for Bob to make Valentine's cards for me, since we spent the day in the hospital.
Now, I serve on the Children’s Legacy Advisor’s Leadership Council to try to give back to the hospital that I am so grateful we had access to when Nora was sick. I sincerely hope that as many children as possible remain healthy and never need the care that Children's provides. But I find so much comfort in the fact that Children's is there if and when other families need help with their sick kids.
