TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – As a Kansas City hospital announced it’s closing its pediatric intensive care unit this summer, a Topeka hospital wants families to know they can find care for critically-ill children closer to home.
Six-year-old Ridley and her family have endured beeps and chirps from hospital monitors throughout her life.
“Ridley was born at 25 weeks gestation weighing a little bit over 1 pound,” said Kerri Jones, Ridley’s mother.
Ridley spent five months in the NICU and had heart surgery a few months later. She has struggled with eating issues and chronic lung disease.
“With the chronic lung disease, any time she gets a common cold or any type of illness her lungs can’t handle it so she ends up in the hospital quite often,” Kerri said.
Care close to home
Ridley has been able to get most of her care at Stormont Vail’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in Topeka.
“We see a lot of medical patients, typically respiratory patients, diabetic patients and a few behavioral health-related things,” said Rachel Ault, RN, nurse manager at Stormont Vail.
Stormont’s PICU is staffed with specially-trained nurses, pediatric intensivists, and pediatric specialists in endocrinology, neurology, cardiology and hematology. The hospital also employs two child life specialists.
“Their whole role is making sure the child’s hospitalization is as normal and non traumatic as possible,” Ault said.
Ridley’s family is happy to have the care minutes away from their Topeka home, rather than driving to Kansas City like they did for her heart surgery.
“It’s hard on everyone, we also have other children and trying to find the balance,” Ridley’s father Jeff Phillips said.
The family has seen the personal care firsthand.
“They remember us, they remember Ridley, which is big to me,” Kerri said. “Here I feel like she is known and they know her story and therefore know what’s best.”
Jeff said watching his daughter struggle has been difficult.
“There’s not, for me, a more helpless feeling in the world than watching your kid struggle and not being able to help them — that’s up to the doctors,” he said. “This is what we’ve always wanted — happy Ridley playing and enjoying life.”
Stormont’s PICU opened in 2011 with six beds. Their staff also assists with pediatric cases in other areas of the hospital, like surgery and the emergency room.
The University of Kansas Health System will discontinue pediatric intensive care (PICU) services this summer. They say it is due to chronically low census in the unit over the past few years and demand for inpatient beds by other populations. Children’s Mercy is located less than three miles away.
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