[Hadassah On Call] Small Patients, Big Emergencies

“We know that the health of a child will eventually be the health of the adult,” says Dr. Saar Hashavya, guest on the newest episode of the Hadassah On Call podcast.

According to Dr. Hashavya, who heads the Pediatric Emergency Department at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, children who show signs of mental health early on need to be treated promptly to help avoid nonmental health issues later, such as habits of alcohol and drug abuse. Unfortunately, he says, he's been seeing more and more children coming in with mental health issues following Covid and October 7, 2023.

Giving listeners an inside look into the pediatric emergency department, Dr. Hashavya shares some miraculous patient stories, including that of a boy with a rare, life-threatening bacteria in his bloodstream who began deteriorating at the emergency department but went home four days later, back to playing soccer.

He also describes some of the new advancements in emergency medicine treatments, including point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), whereby the technology is no longer exclusive to radiologists, allowing for emergency doctors to use ultrasound for a real-time diagnosis, and conscious sedation, whereby the patient is awake but very relaxed, and the sedation treatment is adjusted based on the child’s anxiety level.

There’s more to learn about Dr. Hashavya’s emergency department — like the most commonly swallowed foreign objects needing removal — so tune in now.