Evans Army Community Hospital providers spend most of their time caring for adults, but many Fort Carson families have children who live on base, and when one needs immediate medical attention, it’s important that they can get it at the nearest care facility.

“What we don’t want to see is people putting their loved ones in jeopardy by driving them in the back seat of a car all the way to the north part of town,” said Dennis Pitts, clinical manager for Children’s Hospital Colorado PICU.

That’s why professionals from the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Colorado hold quarterly training sessions with Evans hospital staffers, officials said. The training sessions are simulation-based, with Evans providers working on child “patients” who are seriously injured or ill.

Pediatric doctors and specialists from Children’s Colorado visited Evans on Tuesday to train staff members on treating young patients with critical injuries or illnesses.

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“A lot of people think that kids are basically small adults, but they are not,” Pitts said.

“Because their bodies are still developing, they have different anatomy and physiology. With injuries, there are also concerned family members to deal with. So we focus on not just taking care of the patient, but the family as well.”

Additionally, children often sustain injuries that adults don’t, Pitts said.

“A lot of pediatric injuries and illnesses are things you don’t really see in the adult world,” he said.

The goal for the training is twofold, Children’s Colorado officials said. It helps Evans providers sharpen their skills in a specialty they don’t often see, and it strengthens communication and trust between the two teams.

The summer months are a particularly busy time for pediatric caregivers, according to Michael Wittkamp, a Children’s Colorado physician and associate professor of pediatrics at University of Colorado School of Medicine.

“Summertime, with all this wonderful weather we’re experiencing right now, is also prime time for trauma, especially in children,” Wittkamp said.

In Wednesday’s training scenario, a 5-year-old boy is brought into the Evans emergency department after taking a 10-foot fall from a jungle gym. “Johnny” initially lost consciousness, but as he enters the ER, he is awake and crying.

Evans emergency providers established their respective roles and began assessing the injured boy, keeping him calm while they checked vital signs and looked for possible spinal cord injury.

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Anant Shukla, the Evans emergency physician who led the team, calmly gave orders and received feedback from team members as they stabilized the patient and prepared him for transport to Children’s Colorado.

After the training scenario, Children’s Colorado staff members debriefed the Evans staffers, identifying what went well, and what might have gone better. Wittkamp said he was impressed with the professionalism of the Evans providers.

“Every time we’re here, we see growth,” he said. “Oftentimes, these scenarios do become real life later on.”

Just over a year ago, a critically ill child was brought into Evans, and the providers “had to use the full extent of their skills in stabilization” before sending the young patient to Children’s Colorado, Wittkamp said. Two weeks before, the Evans staffers had gone through a training scenario with a simulated patient with a similar illness.

“They did an incredible job,” he said. “Later on, they told us that training prepared them for that moment so they could do the right thing for the child and help that family through what was an incredibly traumatic time.”

As the resident experts in critical pediatric care, Children’s Colorado partners with several hospitals in southern Colorado, helping doctors and nurses navigate the complexities of caring for critically ill or injured children, Pitts said.

“This is a fun time for us,” said.  “It’s fun to get out of the hospital every now and then and interact with the community. Our team members all live in Colorado Springs. Some of us were born and raised here. We really enjoy helping the people in our own backyard.”

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