The Pediatric Home Ventilator Program at BLK Hospital is dedicated to supporting the care of children with diseases that require long term home mechanical ventilation.
There are three groups of children who require long term support:

• Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS): require support during breathing with usually a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). Some children with OSAS require BiPAP (Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure).
• Neuromuscular Disorders: Children with myopathies or muscular dystrophies (Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy etc) might develop weakness of their respiratory muscles. This weakness is first during sleep. This usually happens around the time when children become non-ambulatory (not able to walk). This weakness of the chest muscles can be diagnosed by doing a sleep study. Some of these children later might need support for maintaining there lungs in a good shape during night. This is called as “non-invasive ventilation” in form of BiPaP.
• Tracheostomy dependant children: Some children are on tracheostomy due to various reasons. These children might in addition need home ventilation with tracheostomy.

Our team works with the child and family, from diagnosing sleep related breathing problems, discussing the need and benefit of long term ventilation, choosing the most appropriate mask, helping the child to acclimatize to the system, choosing the best ventilator, troubleshooting equipment, managing infections etc. The aim is to achieve optimal growth and development, reduces hospital admissions to minimum and have the best possible quality of life.