by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on January 31, 2010
Here’s a quick look at what Thrive was up to last week.
We continue our coverage of Children’s employees working in Haiti through daily updates from nurse anesthetist, Nelson Aquino. Judith Palfrey, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics writes about the most urgent children’s health stories that were neglected by the media last year. Claire McCarthy talks about the updated immunization schedule released by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control. Our Mediatrician answers one grandparent’s question about whether toddlers can learn sign language from DVDs.
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on January 29, 2010
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed a report detailing just how much media kids are using.
Here’s this week’s question:
Q: In your NPR Parents’ Journal interview, you stated that children under the age of 30 months do not learn anything about language from TV programs, but I disagree. My 17-month-old daughter is not allowed to watch entertainment TV, but since she was 9 months old, she has watched a baby signing language DVD series about 3 times a week. Now she knows about 80 signs (and about 60 spoken words), and learning sign language as a family has greatly enhanced our relationships because she can tell us what she needs without crying and throwing a tantrum. I feel strongly that the 1-2 hours of media exposure a week are making her toddlerhood much less frustrating and are worth whatever negative effects are possible. I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
-Serious about Signing, Baltimore, MD [click to continue…]
by Matt Cyr on January 29, 2010
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is still in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Today he gives one more update before he and the others members of the team head back to the United States:
Today (Thursday) was our last day in the OR. The Haitian surgical team will be taking over their OR tomorrow with the few left over volunteers. Tomorrow, the Haitians will be administering their own anesthesia and providing nursing care. This is great that they are ready to become independent again. We all hope they will be able to do so.
We started our day just like we ended our first night, resuscitating a newborn baby. Dr. McClain, Dr. Waisel and the OR team were able to resuscitate the infant and transfer him to the DMAT. In the OR, our team managed two rooms and the Haitians took over the other two. Dr. Meara and Dr. Rogers finished their last surgeries today. I was able to finish my cases today with spinal anesthesia and sedation. Overall, we estimated about 70 surgeries total, not including the sedation in the PACU and in the tents. [click to continue…]
by Claire McCarthy on January 28, 2010
by Melissa Jeltsen on January 28, 2010
After returning from Haiti, Children’s Pediatrician-in-Chief, Gary Fleisher, trauma surgeon David Mooney and pharmacist Shannon Manzi are interviewed by WBZTV about the human suffering they witnessed during their medical mission.
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is still in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Here’s his most recent email:
A week later, many volunteers are starting to go home. I wonder who will come to replace them. Will it be surgeons, doctors, or nurses or all who will roll up there sleeves to take care of the sick. We need many people to rehab the amputees, people to remove hardware, people to provide nursing care and antibiotics, and people to provide long term needs. It will take a long time for this country to be back to where it was prior to the earthquake. But it must be better than that, we must provide homes, a clean water supply and some revenue for this country.
What concerns me is that people may forget the devastation this country has experienced and yet I know I will never forget the images burned in my memory. There are no words to describe the devastation here from people who are sleeping in the rubble of their homes to protect their property and bury their dead.
The infrastructure of the country has almost been annihilated. I am unsure how the hospital will function after other groups start to return home. The ultimate goal is get the Haitian people to function independently with a higher standard of care. This end will require an unconditional commitment from the international community. [click to continue…]
by Matt Cyr on January 27, 2010
Children's trauma surgeon David Mooney, MD, is featured in today's Boston Globe article on infections in Haiti. Photo courtesy Boston Globe.
Editor’s note: All three members of the other Children’s team on the ground in Haiti, Pediatrician-in-Chief, Gary Fleisher, trauma surgeon David Mooney (left) and pharmacist Shannon Manzi, are featured in a Boston Globe article today about how infections are becoming the big problem for the people of Haiti.
Nelson Aquino, a nurse anesthetist from Children’s, is in Haiti with a group of Children’s clinicians. He’s been sending us updates and photos almost daily. Here’s his most recent email:
Today was another hectic day in our makeshift OR. And to make it worse, we did not have any electricity the entire morning. But we continued on safely using our portable monitors, homemade suction and no bovies. You would be amazed how much work we got done without light or electricity. Things are starting to get better each day. As old teams leave and new ones arrive, we continue to get our work done. We all feel like we hit the wall today. The fatigue is starting to get to us even though we are hydrating and trying to eat as much as we can. [click to continue…]
by Judy Palfrey, MD, FAAP on January 26, 2010
Children’s Judith Palfrey, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics writes about the most urgent children’s health stories that were neglected by the media last year:
This past year, the newspapers and blogs were full of stories about H1N1, obesity, autism and health care reform. These are all important and newsworthy topics, but there are other stories that are perhaps less flashy, but nonetheless have worth on their own merit.
As far as I am concerned, one of the biggest of these is the story of our adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions and disabilities. Quietly and without fanfare, as a result of the great innovations of medicine and surgery, the numbers of adolescents and young adults with significant health problems has been rising in the United States. [click to continue…]
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