They’re the leading cause of death and disability in children, which is why traumatic injuries – such as abdominal and chest injuries, brain and spinal cord injuries, and serious limb and broken-bone injuries – demand the quickest response and highest quality of specialized medical care. Next Monday, October 4, 2010, Northridge Hospital Medical Center (NHMC) opens the San Fernando Valley’s first and only Pediatric Trauma Center, providing life-saving emergency medical care to severely injured children from infancy to adolescence on a 24/7 basis.
NHMC’s “Designated” Pediatric Trauma Center means that the facility will have the clinical expertise, requisite staffing and state-of-the-art equipment needed to resuscitate and treat young patients. Its team of pediatric physician specialists practice in more than 20 subspecialties such as emergency medicine, anesthesia, orthopedics and neurosurgery. Additional medical staff members include pediatric specialty-trained RNs, LVNs, social workers, pharmacists, registered dieticians, occupational and physical therapists, speech-language pathologists and respiratory therapists.
For injured adults, the crucial treatment window is known as “the Golden Hour;” but the new NHMC Pediatric Trauma Center aims to treat injured children within the “Platinum 30 Minutes” following the injury, when a fragile child’s life is most in danger.