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CHEO’s Critical Care Transport Team, a lifeline for children in crisis, has now extended its life-saving expertise to older patients.
With a team of specialized nurses and respiratory therapists on call 24/7, they traverse vast distances by ambulance, helicopter, or plane, bringing urgent care to communities across eastern and northern Ontario and western Quebec.
And thanks to the generous support of our community through the CHEO Foundation, the Critical Care Transport Team is equipped to safely carry infants and children who weigh up to 40 kilograms, or about 88 lb., to receive the life-saving care they deserve.
Until recently, equipment limited them to treating only children who weighed up to five kilograms, or 11 lb.
This evolution of care enables the team to help older children like Adalyn Myers, a nine-year-old girl from Lansdowne, Ont.
On the evening of May 13, 2024, she was at a barn riding horses when another horse got loose and kicked her in the chest. Her mom, Leah Ann Myers, said the force put her daughter into cardiac arrest.
Addy, as her mom and others call her, was resuscitated at the scene thanks to quick action by the barn owner. Volunteer first responders would soon arrive and rush her to Kingston General Hospital.
There, tests showed a rupture and Addy required emergency surgery. A heart procedure could only be performed at SickKids in Toronto.
That is when the CHEO transport team took charge to stabilize Addy to bring her to Toronto by air.
“Her body was just shutting down because she wasn't getting enough blood to where it needed to go,” said Myers, who is also a nurse, of her daughter’s condition before transport.
She said the transport team communicated openly and clearly about her daughter and each step of their care.
On the way to Toronto, the cardiac surgeon from SickKids called the family and told them the procedure was typically performed on babies born with congenital heart defects, and he had never done one due to heart trauma.
The surgery took place around 4 a.m. on May 14, and everything went well.
The transport team, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, helped 463 infants, babies and children in 2023 and travelled 93,000 kilometres — which is equivalent to 2.3 times around the world.
Sometimes known as the “Navy Seal” of CHEO, the team collaborates with hospitals and other peer organizations to provide critical care. It’s a dynamic and unpredictable role, said Jenna Atchison, nurse educator with the transport team.
“It’s not just about the clinical work. You’re helping parents and families through what’s one of the worst days of their lives, and that’s a huge part of what we do,” said Atchison.
The Critical Care Transport Team originally launched to transport babies to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at CHEO, and it continues to provide that essential service to babies like Gwenyth Smith.
Gwenyth, who is now 15 months old, was born at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus in July 2023 with neonatal encephalopathy, which means her brain swelled due to a lack of blood and oxygen supplied to her during birth.
Her dad Sean said the transport team arrived to bring Gwenyth to the NICU, and he remembered their stellar communication, professionalism, and thoughtfulness, ensuring mom could see her newborn baby girl before she was taken to CHEO.
“That’s world-class care right there,” he said.
Gwenyth is now thriving with no residual effects from the birth complications, Sean said.
Addy, meanwhile, was discharged from hospital 18 days after her incident. She has since got back on a horse and returned to long-distance running after three months of recovery.