OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital offers your child advanced neurocritical care to recover from a serious brain or spinal cord condition. The Pediatric Neurocritical Care Clinic is the only one of its kind on the West Coast. You'll find:

• A team of specialists devoted to your child's recovery.
• Close cooperation with your family and your child's school, therapists and primary care doctor.
• Expertise in all aspects of brain and spinal cord care, including headaches, memory and emotional health.
• Treatment tailored to your child's needs.

What is neurocritical care?

Children who receive treatment in our intensive care unit for a brain or spinal cord illness or injury may not be done healing when they leave Doernbecher. We provide ongoing care for children with issues such as:

• Seizures
• Headaches
• Sleep problems
• Depression and anxiety
• Memory and attention problems
• Developmental delays
• Problems learning or behaving at school

Evaluation: Our team will evaluate your child before he or she leaves the hospital. If our clinic can help your child, we'll set an appointment for a month later. Follow-up appointments are set as needed.

Conditions we treat

• Traumatic brain injury (often related to a car or bike accident)
• Brain infection, such as meningitis
• Inflammation of the brain or spinal cord
• Stroke
• Seizure disorders
• Spinal cord injury
• Cardiac arrest that injures the brain
• Severe concussion
• Brain injury that results from critical care involving:
• Conditions such as sepsis (a bacterial infection)
• Treatment such as ECMO, a life-support system for the heart and lungs

Our team

Our children's specialists offer expertise in:

• Neurocritical care (intensive care for patients with serious brain, spine or nerve conditions)
• Neurology (care for conditions of the brain, spinal cord and the rest of the nervous system)
• Neurophysiology (the use of specialized tests to map and diagnose brain, spinal cord and nervous system conditions)
• Neuropsychology (how brain conditions affect behavior, emotion and thinking)

Team members:

Trevor Hall, Psy.D., ABPdN

 

 

Juan Piantino, M.D.

 

 

Cydni Williams, M.D.

Learn more

• PICU Family Night: Patients with brain injury or illness and their families gather for dinner, children's activities and support.
• When: 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month
• Where: Collins/Goudy room, 11th floor, Doernbecher Children's Hospital
• Oregon Brain Injury Alliance: The local chapter of the national Brain Injury Alliance provides information, advocacy and support to survivors and families.
  
• Oregon Family to Family Health Information Center: Parents of children with special needs help families connect and navigate the health care system.
• The Center on Brain Injury Research and Training: This University of Oregon center does research and training to improve the lives of traumatic brain injury survivors.
• After PICU: Resources for patients and families after a child's critical illness.
• Society of Critical Care Medicine: Information and links for patients and families.