At Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital, play is an important part of every day for kids. Medical play, another level of play, involves using real and pretend medical items to reduce fear and help kids cope with treatments and tests. Ranken Jordan’s child life specialists educate kids about why they’re in the hospital and help them cope with their experiences through medical play. Play is familiar and comforting to kids in a new situation.
Many of us are feeling coronavirus overload. We’re tired of the threat of COVID-19 and its persistent grasp on our daily lives. Tired of worrying about every sniffle and cough. Tired of the uncertainty. To compound our concerns, flu season is on our doorstep. The good news is we are empowered to do something about it—by simply getting a flu shot. This is an illness that you can control and have an impact on because a vaccine is already available.
The biggest threat across the country as we continue to see a steady rise in COVID-19 cases is what we may face in just a few months—Influenza. The 2019-2020 Influenza season was one of the most severe in recent years; the CDC reported more than 50,000,000 flu illnesses, 740,000 flu hospitalizations and 62,000 flu deaths. Of those, 188 were pediatric deaths [1]. As of August 25, COVID-19 has affected more than 5.7 million in the U.S. alone, with more than 178,000 deaths. Of those, 92 were pediatric deaths [1,2,3]. Despite the large number of COVID-19 cases both in the U.S and worldwide, there’s a lot we still don’t know about COVID-19. Evidence so far suggests that children with medical complexity (CMC) are at increased risk for severe illness and therefore our continued attention to this topic is of high value [4].
The Ameren Corporation Charitable Trust has given Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital $100,000 to fund power lifts to ensure safer lifting of patients as they transfer in and out of bed.
America was thrown a curveball when the COVID-19 pandemic hit this spring. We waited for months for baseball to return after an historic “pandemic delay.” While professional bats are swinging again— at least for now—one league is still waiting in the dugout: Challenger Baseball.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the Midwest in earnest in March, Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital has seen the number of children injured through abuse or gunshot violence double.