Children's Healthcare Foundation

The care for critically ill children begins with early recognition, and aggressive resuscitation and stabilisation. Critically ill children present particular challenges, as there are many unique features, anatomically and physiologically, that differ significantly to adults. Typically, sick children will present with an inability to drink, respiratory distress and altered consciousness. Although they have a great ability for compensation (e.g. increased heart rate, increased respiratory rate), they can also deteriorate very quickly.  A carefully performed clinical assessment, including observation, medical history and physical examination, will detect serious illness with a high sensitivity (90 percent) Some of the most common Paediatric Emergencies are: 1. Respiratory Distress Respiratory emergencies in childhood are characterised by three cardinal manifestations: dyspnoea, wheezing and stridor. The type of stridor can provide an important clue to the differential diagnosis. An ...