title: Emergent Interhospital Transport of Pediatric Patient With a Berlin Heart Device.
abstract: Ventricular assist devices (VADs) for the mechanical support of cardiac failure are being used more frequently in children of increasingly younger age. These children have significant and multiple medical comorbidities, and their length of hospital stay has been increasing. As this population of hospitalized VAD-supported children increases, so does the possibility of their need for interfacility transport for specialized diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. Reports on such transports are limited to 3 children who underwent scheduled elective transfers. We report our experience with a child with a Berlin Heart EXCOR left ventricular assist device (Berlin Heart, Berlin, Germany) who required emergent interfacility transport between our hospital and an affiliated institution.
authors.affiliation: Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE; Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. Electronic address: jhertzog@nemours.org.
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Hertzog
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE; Nemours Cardiac Center, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE.
authors.forename: Marc A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Priest
authors.affiliation: Nemours Cardiac Center, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE; Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Spurrier
authors.affiliation: Nemours Cardiac Center, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE; Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Ryan R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Davies
mesh_terms: D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D017128:Embolectomy; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000628:therapy*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D018636:Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D061185:Mechanical Thrombolysis; D010360:Patient Transfer; D014187:Transportation of Patients