Mom of child with chronic illness wants more pediatric critical care services in Windsor-Essex
CBC
When Kaitlin Lowe's son was born with a chronic gut condition, she didn't anticipate the extra burden of having to regularly travel outside of the region for his care.
Since Sully was born 19 months ago, he's had three major health emergencies that have required him to be transported to hospitals outside of Windsor-Essex — twice across the border to a children's hospital in Michigan and once to London. Most of his scheduled care is now done at London Health Sciences Centre Children's Hospital.
"It's added stress to not be close to home and to not be by our [two] older boys and have to just deal with being far from home and in a scary situation," Lowe said.
Sully has Hirschsprung's disease, a condition that makes it difficult for his large intestine to have bowel movements. To help with this, he has a stoma attached which catches his bodily waste.
Lowe has been loudly advocating for more pediatric critical care in the region after the experiences she's had with her son and speaking with other local parents who also have found it difficult to get the care their children require close to home.
Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) told CBC News that the region doesn't have the pediatric patient volume to support a separate children's hospital or a pediatric emergency unit.
But the hospital couldn't say what volume needs to be met or how far off we are from it to sustain one — though it said London children's hospital serves a population of about 400,000 children.
On average, WRH said it transfers less than four kids per month from its emergency department and less than six kids a month who have been admitted to the hospital to London or Michigan hospitals.
Between 2021 to 2022, the hospital's emergency room had more than 10,000 visits from pediatric patients.
As well, it said it prioritizes the care the patient needs and if that means going outside of the region, where there are specialists who regularly treat special pediatric cases, then that's where the patient should go.
Three days after Sully was born, he stopped eating and started vomiting. At WRH, Lowe said she was told it was unclear what was wrong with him and that he'd have to be sent elsewhere to be assessed.
Across the border, he was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's disease. Complications around this caused him to have surgery at DMC Children's Hospital of Michigan and stay there for a month.
Three months after this, Sully again stopped eating and starting vomiting.
"[Windsor Regional Hospital] didn't know what was wrong, they really didn't know how to handle it," said Lowe.
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