| If your child doesn't respond well to treatment in the | | | | a lot of time available during any hospitalization, this is |
| emergency department, the staff will arrange for | | | | a good opportunity to ask the staff any questions |
| admission to the hospital. In the past, this typically | | | | and review your child's management plan. |
| involved moving to a room upstairs in the hospital | | | | In The Icu |
| where care is supervised by your pediatrician or | | | | Occasionally, a child may respond poorly to treatment |
| another physician. Today some hospitals offer other | | | | and require admission to an intensive care unit. |
| options, such as "overnight" units that are attached | | | | Asthma care in the ICU may include continuous |
| to the emergency room and designed for short | | | | albuterol treatments and intravenous medicines. |
| hospital stays. | | | | Children with severe obstruction of their airways are |
| Hospital treatment for asthma includes regular | | | | unable to eliminate waste gases like carbon dioxide |
| treatments with albuterol or another quick-relief | | | | from the lungs. If these gases build up in the |
| medicine. These will be given close together initially | | | | bloodstream, they'll cause a child to become sleepy. |
| and then gradually spaced to see if your child is able | | | | As a tired child spends less energy on breathing, the |
| to move to a frequency that could be given at | | | | waste gas levels can continue to increase until |
| home. Again, don't be surprised if the doses given in | | | | breathing stops altogether. In these situations, |
| the hospital are higher than what your doctor usually | | | | insertion of a breathing tube (intubation) is needed, |
| prescribes. Steroid medicines also are an important | | | | and the child will be placed on a ventilator. The use of |
| part of hospital treatment to reduce inflammation in | | | | a ventilator is difficult and has many potential |
| the airways. Oxygen may be given if needed. | | | | complications. Fortunately, the need for this type of |
| If your child is hospitalized for an asthma emergency, | | | | treatment is rare as new treatments for asthma |
| she will undoubtedly meet a number of new people. | | | | have become available. |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are taking | | | | By the end of the next day, Robert was feeling |
| on many of the day-to-day responsibilities of | | | | much better. It had been over four hours since his |
| physicians. Respiratory therapists have specific | | | | last breathing treatment, and he was out in the |
| training in asthma and lung diseases and provide | | | | playroom with the other children. After a discussion |
| inhaled medicines as well as other care. In many | | | | with a nurse practitioner on the asthma unit, Robert's |
| hospitals, respiratory therapists have an increasingly | | | | parents realized that his lingering cough was a |
| important role in assessing patients and teaching | | | | symptom of asthma. They learned that persistent |
| families about asthma and the use of medicines. | | | | symptoms, like the cough, can be controlled and |
| Social workers and case managers may also be | | | | prevented. The nurse practitioner also spoke with |
| involved to plan appropriate services and asthma | | | | their family doctor, and they decided to prescribe a |
| equipment for your child at discharge. A well planned | | | | daily inhaled steroid. A follow up appointment was |
| team approach has been shown to be the most | | | | scheduled for later in the week to go over the use |
| effective way to take care of asthma in the hospital, | | | | of the new medicine. With all this new information in |
| and the contribution of each of these health | | | | hand, Robert's parents felt much better prepared to |
| professionals is highly important. And because there's | | | | take control of his asthma in the future. |