La Rabida Children’s Hospital: 2019-2020

Since 1896, families with children in need of specialized medical care have turned to La Rabida Children’s Hospital. As the only hospital of its kind in Chicago, they are dedicated to improving the lives of patients who live with medically complex conditions, disabilities, chronic illness and those who have suffered abuse and trauma. The Jackson Park location along the shores of Lake Michigan provides a healing environment for children requiring inpatient or outpatient care and their goal is to treat the whole child and support the family during both challenges and victories. Washington Square Health Foundation’s support allowed the hospital’s Rehabilitative and Developmental Services department to purchase three pieces of much-needed equipment, the Caribou Supine Prone Stander, a Squiggles Seating System and a Convert-Able Table. Rehabilitative and Developmental Services at La Rabida helps developmentally and physically challenged children reach their fullest potential. They serve children with a variety of medical needs, such as brain injury, burns, cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular disorders, developmental delays, Down syndrome, feeding delays and disorders, and strokes. The Caribou Supine Prone Stander is being used with children who cannot stand unassisted. The stander is allowing transition to an upright position, which is critical for developmental progress. The Caribou Stander is used with a variety of patients of different diagnoses, ages and heights to provide more opportunities to be upright and in a standing position. Edgar is a former La Rabida patient who utilized the Caribou Stander during the early part of his inpatient acute rehabilitation stay. He was able to be positioned up in the stander daily while hospitalized to help him improve his tolerance to being upright and weight bearing through his legs. While in this stander, Edgar was able to work on interacting with his therapists and able to utilize the tray that attaches to the stander to work on his table top activities. The Caribou Stander was a critical part of Edgar’s daily schedule during his inpatient acute rehabilitation phase. He is now walking on his own and back to school. At La Rabida, some of the youngest patients cannot hold their head upright and/or have tracheostomies, requiring a wheelchair that provides additional support and won’t interfere with their breathing tubes. La Rabida is using the Squiggles Seating System to help children under the age of three build up their sitting tolerance /ability to be upright as well as transporting them within the hospital, during therapy sessions and during assessments before they are discharged home. Daniel is a current inpatient at La Rabida and is able to utilize the Squiggles High-Lo chair often throughout his typical day. The Squiggles chair provides adequate support for Daniel and allows him to work on improving his tolerance to upright sitting. He uses the Squiggles chair for meal times as well as play to improve his hand eye coordination and play skills. The Squiggles is critical to his daily schedule and allows him to be positioned upright for play and to interact with his therapists. The Convert-Able Table is a multipurpose, adaptable table La Rabida is using to help children with a variety of diagnoses, including autism, sensory processing disorder and those who need assistance with fine motor skills or are having difficulty in school.