How Digital Health Helped My Newborn Through a Medical Crisis

There are many heartwarming moments a mom-to-be goes through when expecting:

The first ultrasound...
Learning your baby’s gender...
Feeling those first little kicks...

What soon-to-be parents never expect is to have their newborn whisked off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) shortly after delivery. That’s exactly what happened to my husband and I five short weeks ago when we had our second son. After an uneventful and entirely normal pregnancy, our little boy was born at full-term with a squeaky, almost mouse-like noise that he made on every inhalation. We quickly learned that this breathing anomaly was called Stridor, which is an obstructed windpipe or larynx, typically due to excess or ‘floppy’ tissue. An obstructed windpipe? Cue our confused-and-terrified-new-parent panic.

Over the next three weeks, my husband and I met with literally dozens of healthcare practitioners concerning our son’s condition: ENT physicians, pediatricians, nurses, residents, respiratory therapists, ultrasound technicians, and many more. Our son received a full ‘work up’ simply because he was there, which meant staff poked around and screened nearly every one of his major organs. There were so many assessments and tests conducted, and so much information that was collected on his behalf.

He was eventually diagnosed with Laryngomalacia, which is actually utterly harmless in more than 90% of cases. For our son however it interfered with his ability to feed, putting him at risk for something called "failure to thrive." Thankfully, intervention and treatment of this condition is fairly straightforward. Following a minor surgery just above his larynx, our son was able to feed like a regular newborn and finally came home with us.

Although my son’s condition was never critical, these were intense moments for us. The stunningly excellent care that was provided made all the difference. A crucial aspect of that excellent care was their sophisticated use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Using EMR meant that my son’s patient records were always updated immediately in the hospital-wide computer software, and that all hospital staff members could have access to real-time information about him wherever they were and whenever they wanted. Any time my husband and I would meet with yet another new clinician, he or she already knew our son’s entire history up to that moment, right down to the last details. This meant that we didn’t have to spend our time telling and re-telling our story to people and instead, focused on spending time with our son.

I recall asking a NICU nurse to page a lactation consultant for myself, right in the middle of transitioning my son over to General Pediatrics. As soon as we reached the 7^th floor mere minutes later, the new nurse in the new unit promptly said to me “So I understand you would like to speak with a lactation consultant? I’ve already paged one for you.” I was touched. This apparently seamless connection between people was invaluable. 

In healthcare, the quality of relationships with patients has been known to influence how well treatment can go — and as we all know, good communication is the key to any successful relationship. For my husband and I, technology through EMR was instrumental in making the relationships with our son's treatment providers the best they could be. It was such a relief to know that everyone was always on the same page. As a result, we felt so much more confident that he was getting the best care possible at all times.

Digital healthcare solutions, such as the solutions TELUS is providing, are powerful facilitators of more inclusive and unified care for all Canadians. I have experienced this power firsthand and can honestly say it made all the difference for my family.