NEWS

The PERfect Gift

By A Mystery Man Writer

Every seven minutes, a patient comes into SickKids Emergency Department. And on average, every nine hours, a child is resuscitated. Our Emergency Department is one of the busiest paediatric departments in the country. With more than 78,000 visits per year we field most of the GTA’s major traumas and illnesses. Our doctors and nurses see anything and everything – which makes SickKids uniquely situated to improve emergency care for our sickest patients. Your support of research in SickKids Emergency Department means that our teams can study the patients who come through our doors. SickKids Emergency Assistants for Research in Child Health, or SEARCH, is a program that allows our teams to enroll patients in a variety of scientific studies. Our team is examining things such as cycling injuries, the fastest way to diagnose appendicitis, how to help children with severe asthma attacks, and how to reverse septic shock. Most of our studies address ways to improve treatment, diagnose faster and more accurately, and ultimately prevent the things that bring these kids into the emergency department in the first place. Approximately a dozen research projects are going on at one time, focused on areas of care that directly affect thousands of children every year. Thanks to you, SickKids Emergency Department and their team have the opportunity to draw from real-time clinical experiences to create life-altering impact. The more we can understand the problem, the better we can treat it at speed.