Pulmonary habilitation program
Frequently, children with serious or long-term illnesses also have
breathing-related needs. Typically, they need ventilator machines to help them
breathe, sometimes for months or years. Even so, these children often become
medically stable enough to be safely cared for at home on their ventilators.
Typically, these youngsters
come from neonatal or pediatric intensive care units throughout the Midwest, and
they find their way to Children’s Memorial Hospital for help in going home on a
ventilator. Children are eligible for our program if they meet the following
criteria: they are medically stable for home care, family members want to take
child home and are willing to learn child’s care, and the child has housing that
can accommodate the ventilator.
The goal of the program is
to return children to their homes and keep them as active as possible in family,
school and community activities. Families are provided with some home nursing
support in order to help them with their child’s care. The staff members’
expertise in mechanical ventilation, their understanding of technical issues,
their ability to coordinate the complex process for going home and their
excellent grasp of families’ needs in this potentially frightening venture are
what makes Children’s Memorial the hospital of choice for complex long-term
breathing-related needs.
The pulmonary habilitation program currently coordinates the
care of more than 50 children at home on ventilator support. Services
include the 6-bed inpatient Transitional Care Unit (TCU) and outpatient
pulmonary and pulmonary habilitation clinics. The program manages ventilator care for some
of the most complex cases in the greater Chicago metropolitan area. Directed
by Zehava Noah, MD, with assistance from nurse practitioner Cindy Budek and
staff members from respiratory therapy, the pulmonary habilitation program is
the largest of its kind in Illinois and one of the largest in the nation.
To contact the program’s professionals, call 773.388.4780 or write
to:
Children’s Memorial Hospital
Division of Pulmonary Medicine
2300
Children’s Plaza, # 73
Chicago, Illinois 60614