Saskatoon mom grateful for son’s care at JPCH’s pediatric intensive care unit

Exceptional care.

That’s how Meagan Hoffman described the care that nurses, therapists, doctors, nutritionists and others who treated her young son’s respiratory infection provided in November of 2019.

Hoffman’s son has had several medical health complications in his life so far. He was born with Down syndrome, and Hoffman says some days she has been scared not really knowing what would happen to her child.

But the specialized care at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit helped ease some of that stress.

“It feels like you have some control in a situation that’s completely out of control,” she said. “They go above and beyond taking care of your kid and making sure their needs are met. But they also go beyond and make sure the parents, caregivers and anyone else in the centre of the kid’s life is taken care of.”

Like Francis Cashin, Hoffman posted her concerns on Facebook about whether children at the PICU would continue to receive the same level of care given the surge of COVID-19 patients needing ICU treatment at Saskatchewan hospitals, including JPCH.

As of Thursday, there were 273 COVID patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, 58 of whom required ICU care. According to Saskatchewan Health Authority medical health officer Dr. Susan Shaw, there have been three adults recently admitted to the PICU in Saskatoon, at least one of whom was suffering from COVID-19.

The SHA announced Wednesday it would be admitting adults under the age of 40 to the PICU.

During a news conference with reporters Thursday, SHA officials including Shaw and executive director Lori Garchinski were asked whether they anticipated more children needing ICU care in the coming weeks, and if so, how care would be adjusted to meet their needs.

“When there is consideration of an adult patient being placed in the pediatric ICU, there’s a number of conversations and discussions that occur,” Garchinski said.

First, they consider whether the patient has the ability to be managed in the PICU. They also look at overall occupancy in the unit and how many patients they expect to be transferred out, and what the bed staffing situation is.

“It’s not just a carte blanche that so many beds are designated in the PICU,” Garchinski added. “It is a case-by-case discussion.”

But that doesn’t ease Hoffman’s anxiety.

“I know that the health authority is doing the best they can to strategically plan and I have full trust in that they do have plans in place for our pediatric population,” she said. “As a mom, knowing that if those resources are going to be stretched even further, it’s scary.”

She says the fear for her child’s safety never really goes away, even though he has had a good couple of years during which he hasn’t needed care in hospital.

“It’s beyond COVID,” she emphasized. “If something else were to come up for him, he is more likely to develop childhood cancer. He’s more likely to develop certain blood disorders. He’s more likely to develop all sorts of different health-care implications that could require services.

“I’ve had a lot of friends letting me know that their kids’ services are now being cancelled. Their kids’ surgeries are being cancelled. Their clinics and their appointments and the assessments — all of that — they’re clearing that to try to deal with the pandemic at hand … It’s not an elective need in a parent’s eyes,” she said.

She has a similar message as Cashin as well, and is urging more people to get vaccinated.

As for the staff and the services at the PICU in Saskatoon, she said the staff are very specialized in what they do, and she hopes they’re able to continue that level of care.

“The gratitude that a parent feels leaving there when you get to walk out with your kiddo who is on the mend and is feeling better is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Hoffman said.