This Year's Project: Pediatric Injury Prevention Program
We provide programs, equipment and services for sick and injured Siouxland kids and their families. In the last year, babies and kids needed our help 24,195 times--a record. We are best-known for helping sick and injured children in our Emergency Department and our Pediatric Unit as well as premature babies in the region’s only Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We purchase large items like life-saving equipment and small items like super hero capes or crayons. Our CMN program also serves healthy babies by funding critical newborn screenings and bassinets to keep mom and baby close in the same room. By helping healthy deliveries, we celebrate every child as a miracle. We also fund vital programs that serve our patients as well as the community-at-large. Some of those programs include the HEARTS Program, which helps families grieving the loss of a child or baby, the Baby Weigh Clinic which is a free clinic open every Monday at the hospital and helps tracks baby's growth and development, the Family Assistance Program which helps fund resources and equipment at home for children with medical needs and the Pediatric Injury Prevention Program.
Current Project: Pediatric Injury Prevention Program
UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Children's Miracle Network believes we have a responsibility to not only treat traumatic injuries but prevent them as well.
The statistics on preventable injuries are staggering:
- Two children under the age of 14 die every day from drowning.
- The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates 30% of kids do not wear helmets when they ride a bike.
As a result, head injuries account for 62% of all bike injury fatalities. In the spring of 2016, St. Luke’s Emergency Department approached St. Luke’s Children’s Miracle Network with the idea to partner and create the Pediatric Injury Prevention Program. While St. Luke’s Children’s Miracle Network is perhaps best-known for treating illnesses and injuries, we saw this as an opportunity to impact our community in a new way—by preventing a life-changing injury or even death. In its first year, the program provided 100 free life jackets and 200 free bike helmets to kids at local events. Emergency Department staff are on hand to measure children to ensure the proper helmet or life jacket fit and educate kids and families on proper equipment use and preventing injuries.
In 2017, the program more than doubled and expanded to include the Department of Natural Resources. In 2017, 2 Life Jacket Loaner Stations were established at local lakes to ensure that every child has access to a recreational life vest with the understanding it will be returned for another child to use in the future. More Loaner Stations are planned. So far in 2018, 500 bicycle helmets have been given away. Our goal with Big Give is to fund 2,000 helmets and more than 650 life jackets. Each helmet costs $5, and each life jacket costs $15.