Services Offered

The heart of pediatric critical care is the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The 30-bed PICU is located on the third and fourth floors of the state-of-the-art University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. Twenty-four rooms are private with in-room sleeping accommodations. The remaining six beds are semi-private. Parents of all patients are welcome to stay overnight with their child.

Help for Serious Health Problems

The PICU staff is experienced in treating the most life-threatening illnesses in children. But they not only focus on the disease--they focus on the child. This child-centered approach is what many of our families have come to appreciate about care at Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. Our staff meets the unique needs of your child and your family, and helps provide the support that's needed for healing to begin.

Each day, our critical care team treats children with problems such as:

• Trauma
• Respiratory failure due to asthma, bronchiolitis, or infection
• Intractable seizures
• Kidney failure
• Sepsis
• Poisoning

Specialists in intensive care medicine partner with pediatric cardiologists and pediatric heart surgeons to deliver state-of-the-art cardiac care to children who require heart surgery or have serious heart problems.

Technology and Support

Besides our experienced staff and advanced facilities, we have the technology to help support critically ill children. Some of the high-tech services we provide include:

• High frequency oscillatory ventilation
• Open lung/low tidal volume ventilation for respiratory failure and asthma
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a type of long-term heart-lung bypass
• Nitric oxide for respiratory failure
• Helium-oxygen mixtures for acute asthma patients
• Complete dialysis services for children with kidney disorders

PICU doctors also play a vital role in supporting children who require bone marrow transplantation, neurosurgery, chemotherapy, and other procedures.