Our Pediatric Trauma Services

We provide seamless coordination between multiple medical and surgical services tailored to meet your child’s needs. Part of this coordination includes special focus on pain management and stress relief, as well as other services to support your child and family.

Trauma care begins with pain relief

At Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, we’re experts in treating pain. We apply a range of interventions to reduce physical discomfort for your child every step of the way. Topical skin anesthetics and icing sprays before blood draws and the use of skin adhesives instead of stitches are just the beginning. Pain medications that can be inhaled through the nose and the safest anesthesia procedures allow us to reduce not just pain, but also the anxiety your child may experience with trauma. Family-centered care is central to successful treatment. We partner closely with families as members of our care team, so that your observations about your child can help us provide the very best pain relief throughout your child’s treatment and recovery.

Beyond physical pain: Alleviating stress

When pediatric trauma patients are brought in by ambulance or helicopter, they often arrive in the Emergency Department before their parents do. To make sure they feel safe, secure, and in good company, our child life specialists step in immediately to help comfort and support them before, and after, their parents arrive. Staying close to the patient at the head of the trauma bed, our child life specialists engage the child directly by talking to them and reassuring them. While physicians and nurses provide care, the child life specialist provides a point of focus for the child and a friend at their side.

Even after parents arrive, and throughout treatment, child life specialists provide education, support, and stress-reduction techniques for procedures common in the Emergency Department. They are specially trained to explain tests and treatments to your child.

When a stay in the hospital means missed days at school, your child may worry about falling behind or missing their community of friends. To support your child’s emotional well-being and academic needs, the Palo Alto Unified School District provides a free public education program for patients right inside the hospital, either at the hospital school or at the patient’s bedside.

Trauma prevention

Almost all trauma can be prevented. Packard Children’s Hospital partners with Kohl’s For Kids and SAFE KIDS to prevent injury through the proper use and fitting of car seats, bicycle safety and helmets, and pedestrian and fall safety.

Treatment of traumatically injured expectant mothers

Packard Children’s Hospital is one of only a handful of children’s hospitals nationwide that include antepartum, labor and delivery, and maternity care all under the same roof. For traumatically injured expectant mothers, we offer comprehensive trauma care in conjunction with care by our obstetric staff. We provide fetal monitoring to injured mothers, and should your baby arrive early or need medical support, our nationally recognized Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is fully staffed around the clock.