Emergency room visits are a fact of life for many people with rare diseases. And, when the patient is a child, these experiences can be especially stressful for the entire family.
For that reason, NORD was delighted to host a tweetchat with Texas Children’s Hospital – one of our nation’s premier teaching hospitals — on “Navigating the Pediatric ER.” We saw this as an opportunity to address a topic of great importance to our members.
As it turned out, the chat was very active and, in fact, was trending for much of the hour. It was gratifying to us to see how many NORD member organizations participated. It was even better to see the wonderful resources our members have developed to help families prepare for pediatric ER visits.
Sample tweets included:
Breathe and realize everyone is doing their best. Your child’s life is what matters and everyone is on the same team. –Cure HHT
Helpful hint for families: Have ER go bag. Fill it with comfortable items, medical records, so you can grab & go when needed.–Hemophilia Federation
Below are some of the resources that were shared by our members:
The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation’s Pocket Emergency Card
The FPIES Foundation’s Smart Phone App
Hemophilia Federation of America’s Emergency Room, Hospital, & Clinic Visits Toolkit
Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation’s “Handle with Care” Poster
The Mastocytosis Society, Inc.’s Emergency Room Protocol
Missed the chat? See the entire conversation here or on Twitter using #RareERChat.
Do you have resources for ER visits with a rare disease?
Share them in the comments section below.