BILLINGS — The stress of caring for a sick child grows when families have to travel for specialized medical care. But for the past 10 years, some pediatric patients have been getting that care right in Billings.
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Billings Clinic celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their inpatient pediatric unit Friday. The unit provides specialists who can care for medically complex children.
The facility is home to a pediatric cystic fibrosis program, which is the only CF center in Montana. This has been a game changer for parents, like Kat Porco, whose child suffers from Cystic Fibrosis.
"It made it okay that we were going through what we were going through. It made it okay that we were dealing with sepsis and life flights, right, like there's so much going on when you're parenting a child with pretty intense chronic illness," Porco said. "But as soon as we got here, we knew we were safe."
Pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Jerimiah Lysinger explained the impact of having local specialized care available.
"Kids with anything other than simple illnesses had to travel to places like Utah and Colorado to receive care and certainly for kids with chronic medical diseases or more than mild illness would frequently have to leave the state," Lysinger said.
Billings Clinic officials said in the last 10 years, the in-patient pediatric unit has cared for nearly 1,000 children in eastern Montana and northern Wyoming.
