Respiratory Care Week

Every Breath You Take: Respiratory Care at Magee

It’s Respiratory Care Week (October 25-31, 2015) and to celebrate, we’d like to tell you more about Respiratory Therapy here at Magee. Did you know Magee is the only acute rehab hospital in the region that accommodates patients on a ventilator? Magee’s Respiratory Therapy department is a team of 30 full-time and part-time Registered Respiratory Therapists, all specialized in maintaining ventilator dependent spinal cord injury, along with all other services provided by RTs. Respiratory Therapy is a 24×7 service at Magee.

Many patients with spinal cord injury have impairments to their respiratory muscles that require a ventilator to maintain breathing, especially during the critical phase after injury. The goal for most patients is to eventually wean off this external support.

Using different weaning modalities, and collaborating with other disciplines like nursing, speech, therapy, and nutrition, we achieve great results. Being weaned off completely from the ventilator offers patients improved quality of life and independence: our ultimate goal for every Magee patient.

Respiratory Therapy is not just for SCI. Our services extend to the Brain Injury and General Rehab units, as well, assisting patients with tracheostomy tubes and other respiratory needs. We take a step-by-step approach in managing patients with tracheostomy tubes to reduce usage of oxygen and eventually remove the tube.

Members of the Respiratory Therapy team at Magee are pictured above. Together we say “Believe in a way back to normal breathing” to every patient in the Respiratory service.

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