Some of you have asked about the ICU unit here at Dell Children's Hospital. I wanted to share with you how the unit operates and housed. The old children's hospital (Brackenridge) here in Austin was not family friendly when your child needed to be in the ICU. I think Brandon has been there twice when he was very young. There was a chair in the room but no place to sleep. Families had to spend time in the waiting area and it was not private. Groups of families would grieve while other families waited, while others shared their joy. It was very hard. You would find family members sleeping in the waiting area. Some rooms were shared and were very small. It was not a place where you would even consider staying for a week.
Dell's new ICU unit has private rooms with the nursing station right outside the room and a window looking in on the patient. All beepers are also active in the nurses station. Each room has its own bathroom, sleeping for two (besides Brandon), free internet (thank you Michael Dell), and a rocking chair. There are team meetings twice a day with the team working on the care of Brandon. I can sit in on the meetings. They go over the latest data and set a plan for the day. Brandon has a respiratory therapist working with him all day. There are interns assigned to Brandon and they work with the specialists. Brandon's specialist is the Infectious Disease Physician. Really, Brandon has excellent care, just slow recovery. So with the exception of the beeping and people coming in all night, I get a pretty good night's sleep. Physicians start coming in around 8 am.
Today was another day of really agressively trying to get Brandon's lungs cleared. The right lung is still not moving air, but the left lung continues to improve. Brandon sat up for the first time today in a chair. He still continues to have a low grade fever at night. The goal now is to continue trying to get Brandon up, try trial periods without the Bipap machine and continue with respiratory therapy.
I am much more rested today after my long hot bath and a good night's sleep. Thank you to everyone who has signed up to bring food to the hospital. I really appreciate it. It is also good to visit with each of you.
More tomorrow.
Leah
1 comment:
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