Shands Children’s Hospital acquires new equipment to help children rehabilitate

Albert and Alberta introduce the Buffalo Standers to two of our PICU patients. 

Thanks to the University of Florida Medical Guild and Children’s Miracle Network, our youngest patients who often reside in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) or on the fourth floor for months to a year now have some new equipment to help them rehabilitate. Children in these critical developmental stages have trouble getting out of bed outside of their therapy sessions and are suffering secondary impairments. On any day, there are between five to eight children in each unit who will benefit from our new standing program. More than 150 children each year will benefit from the new Buffalo Standers.

There are many patients who will benefit from the three new Buffalo Standers: Berlin Heart patients wait months sometimes up to a year for a transplant; Pompe’s Disease patients often stay for months at a time; children with Cerebral Palsy or seizure disorders; children that are post orthopedic procedures who could get out of bed earlier without fear of falling; children with traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury; children undergoing extensive months of treatment for cancer; and any child who is age 10 months to 8 years old who is unable to stand without support.

The secondary impairments that are caused by prolonged bed rest are costly to our youngest PICU patients. Joint deformity, contracture, loss of independence, decreased cardio-pulmonary function, weight gain, muscle wasting, developmental delay, constipation, and decreased motivation are a few of the many impairments that a standing program in the PICU and on the general pediatrics floor can prevent.

Our new standing program will allow children to get out of bed and stand several times a day. Again, thanks to the UF Medical Guild and Children’s Miracle Network for their support.

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Sean Jeng

Sean got his first taste of web development when he saw his friend building an HTML web page to display Dungeons & Dragons character statistics.…

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