Trevor has always enjoyed summer vacations and looked forward to playing for his recreational basketball team. But all of that was put on hold one August evening when he was hit by a truck while biking without a helmet with his older brother and friend near his Norwalk home. 10-year-old Trevor was critically injured and rushed to Miller Children’s Hospital – home to one of only a few county-designated pediatric emergency departments and trauma centers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
After Trevor was stabilized, doctors at Miller Children’s worked to prevent further damage in the critical hours after the accident. To help relieve pressure on Trevor’s brain, he remained in a medically induced coma for nearly a month. His neurosurgeon also removed a section of his skull to reduce swelling. A month later, the bone flap was reattached and Trevor was moved form the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to begin therapy in Miller Children’s rehabilitation program. The rehabilitation care team also made sure that Trevor’s transition home was seamless. Miller Children’s rehab specialists even visited the Schultheis’ home to make sure it met their son’s needs and was safely furnished for him.
While Trevor was in the hospital his parents and siblings were able to spend time with him and his younger brothers were able to spend time in the sibling room at the hospital. “We make every effort to ensure that parents can spend time with all their children – something that often isn’t possible in these circumstances. That’s one of the great benefits of a children’s hospital dedicated exclusively to the care of kids. The needs of children and their families always comes first,” Dr. BeDell says.
Trevor continues to have therapy several days a week to work on his core strength and speech and is still the free-spirited boy that he was before his accident. Today, Trevor is able to ride his bike again, thanks to the specialized care of Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach.
Pediatric Rehabilitation Care
 Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach offers extensive rehabilitation therapy services, including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and recreational therapy. Rehabilitation therapists provide developmentally and culturally appropriate evaluations and treatment for children from birth to 21 years of age. The entire health care team collaborates with children and their families to achieve the child’s maximum physical, emotional, social, and learning potential. Miller Children’s provides rehabilitation services both during a child’s stay in the hospital and through follow-up care in the Rehabilitation Outpatient Specialty Center.
The pediatric rehabilitation care team sees children with a wide range of conditions, including disability, injury, or illness. Individualized treatment help children gain or regain as much function as possible while instilling a sense of independence and well-being. The Pediatric Rehabilitation Care Team provides services in many multi-disciplinary core care teams throughout the hospital, as well as within Outpatient Specialty Centers.
Miller Children’s Stands Apart
- Miller Children’s is home to one of the region’s only hypertonicity centers.
- Pediatric Rehabilitation at Miller Children’s is a regional leader among children’s hospitals in speech therapy, using advanced treatments such as VitalStim therapy.
- Pediatric rehabilitation at Miller Children’s offers a specially designed school re-entry program which allows the child to successfully return to school as quickly as possible and teach the school about the patient’s functioning ability and any special needs.
- Pediatric rehabilitation has five pediatric rehabilitation gyms, in both the hospital and outpatient centers, including a full-service pediatric rehabilitation gym complete with balance balls, cargo swing, an outdoor play area and exercise and rehabilitation equipment sized just for kids.
- Miller Children’s provides pool therapy as part of their physical and recreational therapy program.
- The pediatric rehabilitation program at Miller Children’s receives generous community support, including from the California Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation.
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