The region’s only pediatric intensive care unit
When a child requires hospitalization for a serious illness or injury, our top-rated children’s hospital and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) team are here to provide advance care at a moment’s notice. Whether a child comes through the emergency department or is flown across the state via transport team, our care teams are united in coordinating pediatric critical care. Advanced technology, bedside monitoring equipment and a secure environment are just a few of the many features you’ll find in our nationally recognized PICU.
Unique to our unit is a dedicated staff of board-certified, pediatric critical care specialist physicians who provide in-hospital coverage 24 hours a day. Patients treated for cardiac and trauma conditions are routinely cared for in the PICU.
Heart-lung support for kids
For children requiring heart-lung support, Mary Bridge Children’s PICU offers veno-venous (VV) extracorporeal life support (ECLS), also known as ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), in addition to our veno-arterial (VA) ECLS program.
ECLS is a complex treatment that utilizes a heart-lung machine to support a patient’s lungs (VV) and/or heart (VA) when their own organs are unable to perform the task. This complex treatment, which may last days to weeks, allows the patient’s lungs and/or heart to rest and recover.
Common conditions that require ECLS include:
- Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
- Meconium aspiration
- Myocarditis
- Sepsis
- Severe pneumonia
Mary Bridge Children’s is one of only two pediatric hospitals in Washington state offering this highly specialized lifesaving technology.