<b>Family doing home care of child depending on mechanical ventilation</b> - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v8i0.9726

Abstract

The dependence of a child is proportional to the complexity degree of the care needed to keep his or her life. Some children depend on a certain type of technological device for their survival so they are known as technologically-dependent children or as children with special needs. Such dependence varies from a feeding probe to an artifical device to keep the child breathing. Children who need mechanical ventilation reach this dependence degree due to genetic diseases, severe infections, traumas, tumors, among others. The long hospital stay of a child who depends on mechanical ventilation influences his or her quality of life as well as his or her family´s. The hospital discharge of these children has become possible whenever the interdisciplinary team, the family, the community and health managers gather efforts so that they can be taken care of at home. Some families have reported their experiences on home care of these children when they face the challenge of taking care of them without the presence of hospital professionals of the Intensive Care Unit. In this article, the authors analyze together with a few family members the concern with the new family routine, the need of re-organizing the family, the importance of the supporting social network and the meaning of being at home.