Patients can get a high-threshold emergency admission for children in Prague’s Motol not only by ambulance or helicopter, but their parents can also bring them here. This is the case when a small patient is in such a condition that he urgently needs treatment. “Our task is to treat him and diagnose what he may be, then invent an examination, give him medication and call an expert,” explains Dr. Júlia Miklošová, who works here.
MUDr. Júlia Miklošová
Júlia Miklošová has been working for more than ten years on a high-threshold emergency admission at the Motol University Hospital in Prague.
In addition to the treatment of acute children’s conditions, it deals with the prevention of injuries to the youngest. She set up a preventive ten for parents of young children and also worked with fellow radiologists to clarify diagnostic procedures that can reveal the fact that the treated child is being abused.
This differs from ordinary emergencies in that, while otherwise the injured person would go straight to orthopedics or with a nosebleed to the ENT, for example, all injuries and illnesses come together at once – and all children from birth to 18 years of age.
Burns, but also bitten nails
However, some injuries may have a much worse story than the parents will come up with. Specific symptoms may tell doctors may be abusive. “The physical ones are mainly bruises, abrasions, there are special fractures that do not correspond to the mechanism described by the parent, or burns. Then it is a strange behavior where the child reacts unusually, “Miklošová calculates. Another warning signal for the surroundings may be that the child gets worse at school or starts biting his nails.
Physicians are constantly working to improve methods to detect such a problem as soon as possible. It is mainly a matter of specifying diagnostic procedures. Imaging methods, especially X-rays, CT or sono of the abdomen, help experts to detect even hidden fractures or traumas.
Last year, doctors from the Motol Hospital even prepared a brochure Let’s Stand Up to the Children. It contains not only clinical symptoms, but also, for example, how to examine children, or how a doctor should behave from a legal point of view.
The number of children who are abused is still rising slightly, but this is more due to the fact that improved diagnostics are able to detect more cases, as well as often occur faster. “Abused children have always been here, but not so much has been talked about and not given so much space. I’m curious what the pandemic did with it, but we don’t have the data yet, “says Julia Miklošová.
Why do pediatricians call their veterinarians? What children’s sports equipment would Julia Miklošová forbid and why does she walk around the playgrounds in an arc? Listen to the whole part of the podcast MUDr.ování, which you will find at the beginning of the article.
MUDr.ování
Health talks with a healthy outlook. Publicist Lucie Šilhová interviews doctors and other experts in the podcast MUDr.ování and with their help seeks answers to questions that interest most of us.
