We ride to give hope to Children's Hospital Colorado patients like Martha, Drew, Lella, Trinity, Wyatt, Lincoln, Emma, Ashton, and Hannah-- just to simply name a few. Kids just like yours, ours, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and friends.
The PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) cares for about 3,000 patients per year. These critically ill patients are not all Colorado kids-- many are flown to CHCO from parts of Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, and New Mexico. While 50% of these admissions are due to a primary respiratory (pulmonary) illness, we also care for around 200 trauma patients and 40 organ transplants each year. Since the pandemic began, we've cared for over 400 pediatric patients with COVID-19 or MIC-C post-COVID. Patients in the PICU have complex medical conditions that may also involve the oncolocy/BMT, hematology, neurology, neurosurgery, metabolic, orthopedic, infectious disease, plastics, ENT, or rheumatology subspecialities.
These kids will not be the last to face a life-threatening illness and their families will not be the last to navigate a frightening diagnosis.
The french word, "peloton", is defined as a pack or group of riders in a bicycle race. These well developed groups of riders take turns leading and returning to the pack in such a way to improve the energy of the very complex and interactive team. This is similar to how our team works on a daily basis while caring for patients in the PICU. Our multi-disciplinary PICU medical team is made up of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dieticians, chaplians, child life specialists, social workers, clinical techs, environmental services, ECMO perfusionists, inpatient service specialists, volunteers, biomedical engineers, music therapists, speech therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and even pet therapists! Each person plays an integral part of the health and well-being of the patient and we could not do it alone.
Please join us to support healthier futures for kids.
