It all began on a beautiful June morning in 2007. Elizabeth felt weak, feverish and was drenched in sweat. Elizabeth though she had a bad case of the flu, but she was wrong. A few hours later, the 18-year-old underwent emergency surgery for severe internal bleeding and shock. During surgery she experienced serious complications and doctors told her distraught family that they didn’t expect her to survive.
Refusing to accept her prognosis, Elizabeth’s aunt arranged for her to be transferred to Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. Elizabeth survived the 30-minute helicopter ride to Miller Children’s where she had more than nine surgeries and procedures over the next few weeks. Elizabeth remained in a coma for more than three months in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). When Elizabeth finally awoke from her coma she had no memory of her ordeal and was unable to walk or speak. She worked with a speech therapist and had physical therapists manipulating her legs, arms and fingers to help her weakened muscles regain strength and flexibility during her stay in the PICU.
“When Elizabeth was admitted, she was in a coma and extremely ill,” says Dr. Christopher Babbitt, pediatric intensivist, Miller Children’s PICU. “But I truly believed we could save her life. Our PICU is staffed around-the-clock by board-certified intensivists and an expert clinical care team. All are trained to provide special care for young patients who are critically ill or injured.”
After five months in the hospital, Elizabeth returned home. Now, when she goes back to see Dr. Babbitt and his staff, they barely recognize her. She’s gained weight, her hair has grown back to pre-hospital length and she moves with confidence. Because of her life-altering experience at Miller Children’s, Elizabeth is determined to become a pediatric nurse so she can give back to other children and families what she was given at Miller Children’s.
Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU)
The 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach provides care to toddlers, children and teenagers who become critically ill or injured. Critical care is comprehensive care for patients whose condition may be life-threatening or who may require constant monitoring. Conditions that commonly cause critical illness and injury include severe infection, poisoning, trauma, extensive surgery, congenital anomalies and immunological disorders. Patients from multiple surgical specialties including neurosurgery, orthopedics and general pediatric surgery receive advanced level care. Miller Children’s Hospital is a level II trauma center and admits patients with a wide variety of traumatic injuries, including head traumas.
The unit is staffed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week by onsite board-certified pediatric intensivists, registered nurses and respiratory therapists with special skills in the management of critically ill children, and the availability of an interdisciplinary team including social workers, dieticians, occupational therapists and physical therapists. This highly trained PICU care team of physicians, nurses, therapists and other staff possess the knowledge, skill and judgment to provide timely assessment and treatment. The PICU team is actively involved in research studies to help improve outcomes nationally. More than 1,300 patients are admitted to the PICU at Miller Children’s each year and half of the patients admitted are transported here from other hospitals, by our specialized pediatric transport team.
Miller Children’s Stands Apart
- The PICU at Miller Children’s is recognized for its state-of-the-art therapies in head traumas and respiratory disorders.
- The PICU cares for the most serious pediatric cases admitted from the hospital’s pediatric Emergency Department or transported from more than 30 area hospitals.
- PICU physicians lead the pediatric rapid response team, for which Miller Children’s Hospital has been selected as a national mentor.
- Miller Children’s Hospital is home to the region’s only county-designated Pediatric Emergency Department and Trauma Center
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