Trevor has always enjoyed summer vacations and looked forward to playing for his recreational basketball team. But all of that was put on hold one August evening when he was hit by a truck while biking without a helmet with his older brother and friend near his Norwalk home. 10-year-old Trevor was critically injured and rushed to Miller Children’s Hospital – home to one of only a few county-designated pediatric emergency departments and trauma centers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
After Trevor was stabilized, doctors at Miller Children’s worked to prevent further damage in the critical hours after the accident. To help relieve pressure on Trevor’s brain, he remained in a medically induced coma for nearly a month. His neurosurgeon also removed a section of his skull to reduce swelling. A month later, the bone flap was reattached and Trevor was moved form the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to begin therapy in Miller Children’s rehabilitation program. The rehabilitation care team also made sure that Trevor’s transition home was seamless. Miller Children’s rehab specialists even visited the Schultheis’ home to make sure it met their son’s needs and was safely furnished for him.
While Trevor was in the hospital his parents and siblings were able to spend time with him and his younger brothers were able to spend time in the sibling room at the hospital. “We make every effort to ensure that parents can spend time with all their children – something that often isn’t possible in these circumstances. That’s one of the great benefits of a children’s hospital dedicated exclusively to the care of kids. The needs of children and their families always comes first,” Dr. BeDell says.
Trevor continues to have therapy several days a week to work on his core strength and speech and is still the free-spirited boy that he was before his accident. Today, Trevor is able to ride his bike again, thanks to the specialized care of Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach.
Occupational Therapy
The goal of occupational therapy is to help children develop “skills for the job of living” so they can lead independent, productive and satisfying lives. An occupational therapist (OT) helps children adapt to their environment and works to adapt the environment to meet their needs. OTs focus on decreasing the impact of disability, while enhancing quality of life in the areas of self-care, play/productivity and leisure.
Assessment & Intervention
Miller Children's occupational therapists collaborate with the family and health care team to complete developmental, functional and feeding/swallowing assessments. Children are then ensured appropriate and individualized intervention that promotes and facilitates the development of skills and behaviors essential to daily living while minimizing the impact of impairment and/or disability on functional independence. Children receive specialized care for:
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
- Oral motor and feeding skills
- Swallowing function
- Perceptual skills
- Sensory function and processing skills
- Personal-social skills
- Adaptive skills
- Visual motor skills
- Activities of daily living (ADLs)
Children receive intervention that may include direct therapy, bedside programs, home programs, caregiver education, outpatient therapy, recommendations for adaptive equipment and community referrals. Occupational therapists are specially trained to improve children's functioning and independence using approaches such as range of motion, strengthening, developmental handling, oral motor/feeding/swallowing, electrical stimulation, VitalStim therapy, positioning, ADL training and sensory integration.
A Collaborative Approach
Occupational therapists work with thte entire health care team to provide care for patients who are inpatients (hospitalized) in most of the care centers including acute rehabilitation, pediatric intensive care unit, hematology/oncology, general pediatrics and a team dedicated exclusively to the NICU. OTs also are a part of many of the outpatient care teams, including Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, Hypertonicity, Rehabilitation, High-Risk Infant Follow-Up and Craniofacial.
Occupational therapists may assist physical therapists with adapting wheelchairs and walkers or make recommendations for adaptive equipment. An occupational therapist may also work with speech therapists as part of the dysphagia team to evaluate and treat feeding and swallowing difficulties.
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