Our highly trained team of pediatric critical care specialists ensures your child receives the focused attention and services they deserve. Board-certified physicians and specially trained nurses safely deliver care that’s appropriate and essential for your child’s circumstances. They work together with other specialists in our state-of-the-art pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Your child receives compassionate care from a diverse team of UC Davis Health pediatric specialists. Our PICU specialists work closely with general surgeons, cardiac surgeons and neurosurgeons, all available on short notice. Our expanded team also includes hematologist-oncologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists and many other specialists. The breadth of our expertise helps your child receive prompt, personalized care.

We constantly advance treatment and improve outcomes for critically ill and injured children through research. Our interests include improving access in rural communities and enhancing inpatient services. These efforts have the potential to help children all over the world.

Life-threatening and difficult-to-treat infections raise the risk of septic shock and organ damage. PICU care may include delivering extra fluids to your child through an intravenous (IV) line (in their vein) or powerful doses of medications.

These conditions include traumatic (sudden and severe) brain injuries (TBIs) and compound fractures. We also care for children with partially severed limbs (amputations), a heart that stops after forceful impact (traumatic cardiac arrest) or spinal cord injuries (spine trauma). Care includes treatment and ongoing monitoring to reduce the risk of complications and ensure your child's recovery stays on track.

If a diseased or injured organ is not working as it should, we use various life support methods including a heart-lung bypass machine (extra-corporeal life support) to sustain your child's body systems. We may use a machine (ventilator) that moves air in and out of your child's lungs. When kidneys aren't working, a process called dialysis may be necessary to filter toxins from your child's blood.

Children born with severe conditions that limit the heart's ability to pump blood, such as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, may require life-saving procedures. We follow up with around-the-clock monitoring in our pediatric cardiac intensive care unit to ensure these therapies work for your child as they should.

Our pediatric critical care expertise extends to where you live, and more distant communities, with telemedicine services. Using high-resolution videoconferencing technology, we work with local physicians to assess children with certain acute conditions. UC Davis Health experts provide personalized care recommendations that enable you and your child to receive treatment closer to home.

Our team includes experts with additional training in the critical needs of children with advanced heart conditions. We provide specialized monitoring and therapies to children with limited heart function and those recovering from cardiac surgery. It’s part of our commitment to delivering world-class pediatric heart care in Northern California.

Each year, we provide medical transport services to critically ill children in a 33-county region. We have immediate access to fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and ground ambulances with direct communication to hospital specialists. Our services help hundreds of children each year access care as quickly as possible.

We provide patient- and family-focused services throughout your child’s care journey. Turn to our care team for symptom management, coordination, and help making difficult medical decisions. You and your loved ones may also receive emotional and spiritual support. These efforts ease some of the stress you may experience, so you can focus on your child.