Pulmonary Program
Our Children's House at Baylor offers a Pulmonary Program for children who are chronically ill, physically fragile or traumatically injured. The program provides care for children who need short-term tracheotomy/ventilator assistance and to those with long-term tracheotomy/ventilator dependencies who will return home.Our multidisciplinary team monitors all of our patients on a 24-hour basis. Patients are placed on a portable ventilator and may receive therapies outside of their rooms in one of the facility's living or therapy areas. As children improve, they may receive Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP®) or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) as other forms of ventilation.
We make every effort to include a child's family during his or her treatment. Our experienced staff helps teach the family about their child's condition and how to manage sypmtoms at home. In addition to learning medical and therapeutic care, they can participate in patient care conferences with other members of the treatment team. Additionally, we offer parents resources to cope with stress and other difficulties during their child's treatment.
Conditions Treated
We treat infants and children who have sustained a neurological injury or who have immature lungs that have resulted in breathing difficulties.
- Anoxia
- Anemia
- Birth defects/genetic disorders
- Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- Brain injury
- Brain stem stroke
- Guillain-Barr
- Neuromuscular disorders
- Spinal cord injury
- Sleep disorders
Services Provided
To help children get the most out of the treatment, we provide assistive devices and environmental control units (ECUs), which enable the child to independently turn on and off the lights, television, radio, etc., without the use of their hands. In addition to assistive devices, we offer the following specialized services:
- Care coordination/case management
- Child Life specialists
- Medical management provided by pediatric nurse practitioners and pediatric pulmonologists
- Neuropsychology/Psychology
- Nursing Care
- Nutrition services
- Occupational therapy
- On-site education
- Physical therapy
- Respiratory therapy
- Social work/Psychosocial needs
- Speech-language pathology
- Spiritual support and counseling
Experienced Care
The specially trained physicians on staff at Our Children's House at Baylor have both clinical and academic experience in pulmonary care.
- Andrew Gelfand, M.D., Medical Director of Pulmonary Program at Our Children's House at Baylor
- Steven C. Copenhaver, M.D., staff pulmonologist at Our Children's House at Baylor
- Kelvin Panesar, M.D., staff pulmonologist at Our Children's House at Baylor, Medical Director of Sleep Study Program