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VOLUME 19, NUMBER 8
MARCH 3, 1972
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Opens
A pediatric intensive care unit has
been opened at Duke Hospital to provide
critically ill children with constant
personal and specialized medical care.
According to Dr. Alexander Spock,
director of Duke's Pediatric Pulmonary
Program, the unit, located on Howland
Ward, implements a new concept in the
technical management of sick children.
"Patients housed in this intensive care
section benefit from a one-to-one nursing
ratio plus careful electronic monitoring
which permit constant observation and
supervision of the patient," Dr. Spock
said.
Also, these patients are attended by
doctors and nurses who have had special
additional training designed to assist
children with certain complex and severe
illnesses, he added.
The unit accommodates five patients
and has been specifically designed to
provide care for patients with acute
overwhelming respiratory difficulties such
as bronchial asthma, pulmonary edema or
diffuse pneumonia.
Other patients who may also benefit
from the unit are those suffering from
shock, diabetic coma, and drug or poison
ingestion, as well as severely burned
children, brain-injured patients, critically
ill post-operative patients and those with
heart failure.
A limited access section has been
arranged so that patients with rapidly
progressing infectious diseases can be
isolated in the unit.
The unit has an assortment of
specialized equipment such as monitoring
devices which enable physicians to
observe continuously a patient's heart
patterns and heart output. Dr. Spock said
that the new unit will prove especially
beneficial for pediatric patients with
cyanosis (insufficient oxygen) and heart
failure.
These patients not only require
P
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JUST FOR KIDS—Dr. Alexander Spock, associate professor of pediatrics, checks
over a child in Duke's new pediatric intensive care unit located on Howland Ward.
(photo by Thad Sparks)
constant observation of their clinical
status, but also continuous watching of
their blood gases and blood chemistries.
The new intensive care unit is equipped
with a small laboratory area where
repeated blood gas analyses can be
obtained promptly.
"It is sometimes imperative to get a
quick blood gas analysis to determine if a
patient is receiving the proper amount of
oxygen needed to maintain an optimal
leivel in his bloodstream," Dr. Spock
explained.
He said it is important that critically ill
pediatric patients be grouped together so
that the specialized talents of the medical
personnel attending them can be put to
maximum use. Additionally, because of
the improved .care provided by a
well-coordinated functioning staff, more
serious complications may be prevented.
Before the new unit was opened, a
child with bronchial asthma might be
located in one area while a burn patient
who required the same kind of specialized
nursing could be in another room, far
removed. This meant the doctors and
nurses spent too much of their time
'commuting'from patient to patient.
The hospital has had since 1968 an
intensive care nursery which administers
to the special needs of ill babies from
birth to three months. The new unit takes
over where the established intensive care
nursery leaves off.
Dr. Spock said children through age 14
can be kept in the new intensive care
section.
(continued on page four)