Trauma Center

With the only Pediatric Trauma Center in the state of Delaware, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children provides specialized emergency and ongoing care for seriously injured children and teens.

Children who require emergency care have unique needs – and studies demonstrate that young people have significantly better outcomes when they are treated in a Pediatric Trauma Center. That's because we have the training, the experience, and the right equipment to take care of children with severe injuries.

After a serious injury, every second counts

If your child is seriously injured in a dangerous fall or car crash (two of the most common causes of childhood injury), prompt, specialized trauma treatment can make all the difference. Our Pediatric Trauma Center is a Level II Trauma Center with emergency and surgical services available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Children with serious injuries are brought here by ground or air (ambulance or helicopter) through local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) via a call to 911, or through Nemours Critical Care Transport (CCT) team at the request of another hospital or other health care facility. Our trauma team remains in contact with the EMS or CCT teams during transport to our Trauma Center.

An entire trauma team dedicated to children

Once your child arrives in the Emergency Department, we immediately go into action to evaluate injuries and begin treatment. We have an experienced in-house trauma team, operating room (OR), and specialists available 24/7 to care for your child. Led by the attending trauma surgeon (the surgeon in charge of the child’s care), the team assessing every potentially serious trauma injury includes:

• emergency medicine physicians
• pediatric anesthesiologist
• pediatric radiologist and radiology (medical imaging) technicians
• critical care physicians
• surgery residents (doctors training to be surgeons)
• advanced practice nurses (APN), including surgical APN and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) nurses
• sub-specialist surgeons, as needed — such as Orthopedics, Cardiac Surgery, Ophthalmology, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, ENT (Ears, Nose, and Throat)

We realize that emergency situations are very frightening and we do all we can to keep your family informed as we work to care for and comfort your child. We also have Pastoral Care and Social Work providers on hand to offer support as needed.

Treatment customized just for kids.

Treating kids requires special equipment and expertise. That's why we have things like smaller blood pressure cuffs and IVs, sized to fit infants to teens.

Quick, clear X-rays and imaging are also critical to trauma treatment, so we have state-of-the-art technology and diagnostic equipment available 24/7, including a 64-slice CT scanner (which allows us to offer faster CT scans with improved image quality), as well as ultrasound and MRI for emergencies. We are experts at adjusting to a child's size and weight to achieve the best images with the lowest radiation exposure possible.

Our experience also helps us recognize when your child is in pain or simply afraid, and our team members have a special gift for calming fears and helping children feel comfortable.

Comprehensive, family-centered care

From the moment your child arrives until the day your family is able to go home together, our trauma team and dedicated health care professionals help every step of the way. With the vital resources located right within our hospital, we offer complete trauma care – from evaluation in our Emergency Department, to inpatient hospital care (for children who need to be hospitalized), to rehabilitation – all the way through follow-up care.

We answer questions, address any concerns, and do our best to make the transition from injury to recovery as easy as possible for the family.