06/06/2022

Friends of Franz Podcast S1 E20: Pediatric Critical Care with Dr. Anita Patel

There's a commonly-shared quote online that goes, "A wife who loses a husband is called a widow. A husband who loses a wife is called a widower. A child who loses his parents is called an orphan. But there is no word for a parent who loses a child." Sadly, this is a very true incident in such a grave setting as the intensive care unit for children where, though lives can be truly saved and recovery is many times accomplished, death can be a very imminent event. With a whole life and unfulfilled dreams ahead of children, one cannot truly imagine the fret and pain their loved ones must feel in times of disease and loss. How is this hurt managed? How is death, at most, prevented within the walls of the hospital? In this episode, we hear from one who shares these feelings with children and their families in the most perilous conditions: Dr. Anita Patel.

Dr. Patel stands as an attending PICU doctor at Children's National Hospital, assistant professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine, and an NIH-funded researcher specializing in pain, sedation, and delirium management in critically-ill children. Beyond this, Dr. Patel is a registered yoga teacher who shares medical education online since the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

How has the novel coronavirus affected children with comorbidities? Are asthmatic children in more peril when contracting the airborne contagion? Was it truly time for children to return to in-person academic instruction? Are mask mandates for children justified? Should children be vaccinated in order to return to school? What is the prevalence of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MISC-C) as the Delta variant disseminates? Dr. Patel tackles these controversial and divisive issues as she shares her thoughts not only as a physician whose expertise is in the painstaking care of children but also as a mother whose only hope is the wellbeing of every kid in the world.