The Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Denver Health is a highly specialized intensive care unit at Denver Health where the hospital's most critically ill patients recover from trauma accidents and emergency surgery.
The SICU is staffed by specially trained trauma nurses and trauma physicians who care for patients 24 hours a day.
The Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine Division provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for patients from the Denver metropolitan area and serves as a referral resource for patients from throughout the State of Colorado and neighboring regions. The Pulmonary and Critical Care Division is an affiliate of the nationally recognized Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care with the University of Colorado and National Jewish Health.
Conditions we treat include but are not limited to:
- Asthma
- COPD
- Bronchitis
- Chronic cough
- Emphysema
- Lung Cancer
- Pneumonia
- Interstitial Lung Diseases/Pulmonary fibrosis
- Occupational Lung Diseases
- Autoimmune and Rheumatological Lung Diseases
- Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
- Acute and Chronic Respiratory Failure
- Sepsis and Shock
- Multiple organ failure
- Severe intoxication and withdrawal syndromes
- Pulmonary Hypertension
- Pulmonary Thromboembolism
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Central Sleep Apnea
- Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
- Insomnia and sleep disturbances
Sleep Clinic
The division includes a sleep team who can assist with diagnostics and treatment of complicated sleep disorders.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary, patient-focused physical and educational treatment program directed toward patients with lung disease. Our program staff include respiratory therapists, exercise physiologists and physicians. Referrals can be made directly to pulmonary rehabilitation by any care provider.
The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is located adjacent to the pediatric hospital unit. Each room is private with a flat screen television and is equipped with all of the state-of-the-art equipment needed to help children recover from serious illnesses and injuries.
Pediatric intensivists and surgeons are on staff to provide care 24 hours a day and our nursing staff specializing in pediatric intensive care is always nearby to help.
Welcoming a new baby is one of life’s most precious moments. Sometimes newborns arrive early or have special medical needs. When this happens, babies are transferred to Denver Health’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), adjacent to Labor and Delivery. The NICU is designed for newborns in need of intensive medical care following birth.
The Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) is a 24-bed unit. We provide care to very sick patients. The unit is staffed by a team of doctors, nurses, therapists, chaplains and social workers. Our goal is to give excellent care to all our patients and their loved ones.
MICU Mission
Denver Health’s Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine team provides multidisciplinary care with a focus on diagnosis and treatment of both complex and common respiratory problems as well as management of critically ill, hospitalized patients. Care is provided in both outpatient and inpatient settings.
Our services and procedures include some of the most prevalent respiratory issues, including:
In Tucson, Arizona, a study of 707 children born with heart defects revealed that 35 percent of them were born to parents living in a part of the city where the water supply was contaminated with industrial solvents (trichloroethylene and dichloroethylene).
The rate of birth defects of the heart was three times as high among people drinking the contaminated water, compared to people in Tucson not drinking contaminated water. Exposure to solvents and other organic liquids is one of the most common chemical health risk at places of work.
Most of the organic solvents are combustible, often highly volatile and extremely flammable, and they should always be handled with care. Some solvents produce vapors, which are heavier than air. These may move on the floor or ground to a distant ignition source, such as a spark from welding or caused by static electricity.
The vapors may also explode from smoking. Vapors of solvents can also accumulate in confined places and stay there for a long time, presenting risks for health and property. Solvents enter the body by inhalation, by swallowing and through the skin.
Many communities add fluoride to their drinking water to promote dental health. Each community makes its own decision about whether or not to add fluoride. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set an enforceable drinking water standard for fluoride of 4 mg/L (some people who drink water containing fluoride in excess of this level over many years could get bone disease, including pain and tenderness of the bones).
The EPA has also set a secondary fluoride standard of 2 mg/L to protect against dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis, in its moderate or severe forms, may result in a brown staining and/or pitting of the permanent teeth. This problem occurs only in developing teeth before they erupt from the gums.
Children under nine should not drink water that has more than 2 mg/L of fluoride.
If there are enough tiny particles suspended in water, it becomes cloudy or turbid. Light bounces off the suspended particles giving the water a milky or muddy appearance. Gasses dissolved in water can also cause turbidity if they begin to come out of solution or "degas" (like the bubbles that form when a carbonated drink is opened).
Gas bubbles will eventually rise to the surface and disappear; the water will clear. Other materials suspended in water neither rise nor settle, so the water does not clear. 100+ years ago, cholera (caused by Vibrio cholera) and typhoid fever (caused by Salmonella typhi) were responsible for epidemics (caused by drinking contaminated water) that killed many thousands of people.
Today, in most parts of the world, because of chlorination and other water purification processes, we do not usually hear about cholera outbreaks unless an accident or natural disaster has disabled water purification plants. Today in the United States, the pathogenic bacterial contaminant most often encountered is fecal bacteria, or E. coli {MCL=0.0 bacteria}, which enters the water supply from human or animal wastes.
The EPA regulates the maximum allowable levels for these bacteria in drinking water, and most people most of the time either do not encounter these bacteria in their drinking water or do not get sick. The article "Tap Water at Risk by the Houston Chronicle" reported that in the USA in 1994-1995, there were 3,641 water purification utilities that reported violating the federal health standards for fecal bacteria contamination.
These utilities together served 11.9 million people. Despite these statistics, disease outbreaks (in people on municipal water) linked to E. coli in the U.S. appear to be quite rare. According to a note in the Denver Post (p. 4B), July 18, 1998, reporting that an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 50 people in Alpine WY (population 470) was probably caused by a contaminated town water supply. The state epidemiologist said that it was only the second outbreak in the nation that has been linked to municipal water.
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Protection from sun exposure is important all year round, not just during the summer or at the pool. Any time the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays are able to reach the earth, you need to protect yourself from excessive sun exposure. UV rays can cause skin damage during any season or temperature.
The hours between 10:00 a.m. and 4 p.m. during daylight savings time (9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. during standard time) are usually the most hazardous for UV exposure in the continental United States. UV radiation is the greatest during the late spring and early summer in the Rocky Mountain Region.
UV rays reach you on cloudy and hazy days, as well as on bright and sunny days. UV rays will also reflect off any surface like water, cement, sand, and snow.
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Schools have four times as many people per unit area than the typical office building. Schools also support a variety of activities (from art to gym classes) and often have tight budgets and deferred maintenance. These factors make it difficult for schools to ensure good indoor air quality.
All states have schools with unsatisfactory environmental conditions. In a June 1996 General Accounting Office report to Congress on School Facilities, about 69 percent of schools nationwide reported at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition. Of these, 19 percent are attributed to unsatisfactory indoor air quality, 19 percent to unsatisfactory heating and 27 percent to unsatisfactory ventilation.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is especially concerned with Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in schools because children spend a majority of their day there. EPA assists schools across the region in addressing indoor air quality problems using low-or no-cost techniques and existing school resources. The IAQ Tools for Schools program, for example, promotes the use of the Tools for Schools Action Kit. This kit serves as a model IAQ management plan for schools to use for increasing awareness and developing communication strategies. It is designed to help prevent indoor air quality problems from occurring and to guide schools through the quick and efficient resolution of problems if and when they do occur.
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Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas produced from the incomplete burning of virtually any combustible product. It may accumulate indoors as a result of tobacco smoking, poorly ventilated appliances and attached garages.
Carbon monoxide enters the blood from the lungs and combines with hemoglobin, blocking the blood's ability to carry oxygen to body cells. Symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure may mimic influenza and include fatigue, headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, mental confusion and rapid heart rate. Depending on the level of exposure, carbon monoxide can be immediately fatal. Long-term, low-level exposure to carbon monoxide by pregnant women have the potential to injure the developing fetus.
Exposure to secondhand smoke can increase the risk of allergic complications such as sinusitis and bronchitis. Common symptoms of smoke irritation are burning or watery eyes, nasal congestion, coughing, hoarseness and shortness of breath presenting as a wheeze. It is best not to smoke around children.
Radon is a cancer-causing, radioactive gas. You cannot see, smell or taste radon. However, it may be a problem in your home. When you breathe air that contains radon, lung cancer can develop. In fact, the Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today.
Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths. If you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.
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Cleaning supplies, cosmetics, personal care products, house plants and medications are all things around your home that can effect the health of your child. Especially with children under 6 years, these items should be kept out of reach and locked up to prevent accidental ingestion and exposure.
If you believe your child has tasted or eaten any of these household products, call your local poison center immediately at 1-800-222-1222.
