Our children are precious, we want the best for them in life and will do everything in our power to ensure they grow up strong, fit and healthy. And, for most, that is the case, bring joy and pride to the parents. Sadly, some children, through sickness, disease or accident have their upbringing disrupted by the need for emergency medical care.

Although parents, and society as a whole, are ever increasingly aware of the dangers that threaten the health of children, astonishingly, year on year there is a 3% rise in the emergency hospital admissions of children across the globe.

Analysists are unable to agree as to the cause of this ongoing rise in numbers. Theories range from war, famine and natural disasters, to lack of parental care, societal changes or perhaps, and most likely, greater access to medical facilities throughout the word.

The medical care of children, pediatrics, is a multi-faceted discipline within the medical profession. One that requires dedicated, highly trained professionals. Bringing together a team of practitioners that span the multitude of medical skill sets required to diagnose and care children at the highest level, is in itself, no mean feat.

Such a team does exist at the emergency clinic of Samitivej Srinakarin Children’s Hospital. This is a dedicated facility that offers 24-hour emergency cover throughout the capital. For children that become sick or are involved in an accident there is no better service.

On constant standby are pediatric, heart and brain surgeons, in addition to ophthalmologists, orthopedists, urologists and anesthesiologists. Backing up these professionals there is a comprehensive team of skilled nurses and care support specialists.

Bringing together these leaders in their particular fields of medicine has resulted in, arguably, one of the finest children’s emergency facilities available anywhere. In the pursuit of exemplary medical care for children, having the finest available personnel is only part of the task. The facility within which they practice is equally important.

This has long since been recognized at Samitivej Srinakarin Children’s Hospital which has given rise to their dedicated Children’s Emergency Clinic. All areas within this facility are equipped with modern, state of the art equipment helping to maximize the total care which only such a facility can provide.

Diagnostics, general treatment and operating suites, along with medication rooms, in their modernity, match and compliment the exemplary professional team working within them. This, coupled with Samitivej’s Total Clean mantra to sterility and hygiene without compromise, has led to probably the most successful children’s emergency clinic in Asia.

Samitivej Srinakarin Children’s Hospital Emergency Clinic is not only for the indigenous population; it operates as an “Open to All” facility which treats children from across world. Not only is Thailand, Bangkok in particular, multi-cultural but is also the destination for thousands of tourists from across the world, any of which may require emergency medical treatment.

For this reason, the professional team, from doctors to nurses, at the emergency clinic are multi-lingual with linguistic skills spanning numerous languages. Additionally, interpreters of many other languages are on hand to aid in translation should that be necessary, which is all part of the Total Care approach to the medical care of children.

Common Causes of Emergency Admissions

Children will have accidents; it is part of growing up. Most accidents are a result of innocent activities, such as falls, boisterous play and sport. Broken bones, eye injuries and near drownings are not unusual. Thankfully, most injured children, following excellent emergency care at Samitivej Srinakarin Children’s Hospital Emergency Clinic, recover with no lasting ill effects.

Unfortunately, it is a fact that road traffic accidents remain one of the highest reasons for the emergency admission to hospital of children. In February of this year alone there were 7.5 thousand minor injuries and around 1.9 thousand serious injuries as a result of road traffic accidents, many of these victims are children.

Injuries resulting from road traffic accidents can vary from concussion and broken bones to major body trauma. Following a road traffic accident fast, effective assessment and diagnosis of the victims is essential.

Emergency admissions of children due to respiratory problems is also on the increase. bronchiolitis admissions have risen by 8.59%, bronchitis by an astonishing 26% and likewise for pneumonia. Allergy induced respiratory issues also show a worrying trend of increase. Recently these problems have been compounded by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Many children require emergency admission as a result of their ongoing sufferance of disease. Cancers in children are on the increase, last year’s figures show a 1.2% rise in emergency admissions due to cancer related issues. The top three groups of cancers in children causing emergency hospital admission are leukemia, brain tumors, and lymphomas.

Common Emergency Treatments

Plaster casting for broken bones is almost a daily occurrence. Following X-rays, the clinics children’s pediatric orthopedic specialists undertake this task. Their expert people skills ensure that this is a procedure void of trauma for the child.

Open wounds are treated with innovative, up to date, wound management products and procedures. Depending on the type of wound, one of four methods of closing can be employed, they being, sutures, surgical staples, skin closure tapes, and adhesives.

More major injuries may require immediate surgery. The surgical suites at the emergency clinic are constantly kept in a state of immediate readiness. Doctors, surgeons and surgical support staff are on standby 24 hours a day.

An important, fundamental issue facing medical teams when treating children is their propensity to feel panic and to be more susceptible than adults to pain. The clinic’s emergency team tackle these issues in a number of ways. It maybe that analgesics are administered to relieve pain. Non-pharmacological strategies can also be employed. The clinic’s staff are trained in distractive methods which has become a valuable tool in reducing stress and panic in children. Keeping a child relaxed and stress free is invaluable during the process of diagnosis and treatment of injuries.

For residents of, and visitors to, Thailand, being aware of how to best care for your children in an emergency is vital. Accidents and injury can happen at any time so it is important to have access to emergency ambulance response and 24-hour triage attention by skilled professional physicians. Samitivej Srinakarin Children’s Hospital Emergency Clinic provides this total care service to all.