The Culture of Different MKTG_150064494_2018 Service Line Big Book Full_FIN | Page 54

Dr. Hawkins nods toward the remaining rows of
CPAP boxes, all similarly arrayed.
“As you can see, these are marketed pretty much
exclusively to middle-aged dudes,” he says. “There
aren’t any really great options for little kids.”
The Cannula
that Saved Kylie
“By the time we recommend
CPAP, we’ve already tried
every other means we’ve got,”
says pulmonologist Stephen
Hawkins, MD. He was part of
the sleep team that pioneered
a new approach — which
likely saved Kylie Tatro’s life.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
SPECIALTIES
FEATURED:
Pulmonology
Cardiology and
Heart Surgery
Pediatrics
Anna and John J.
Sie Center for Down
Syndrome
Kylie Tatro has worn a nasal
cannula her entire life. She
needs the help drawing oxygen
into her blood. Like nearly half of
kids with Down syndrome, Kylie
has pulmonary hypertension,
or PH. Like many more, she also
has a heart defect.
Both put her at risk for hypoxic
brain damage. Heightening
Kylie’s risk even further is her
Moyamoya disease — a rare
condition that constricts the
blood vessels in her brain.
She also aspirates fluids.
And that’s just during the day.
“We’re a mobile hospital,” says
Beau, Kylie’s father. “Every
time we go out, we take along
a nebulizer, a suction machine,
thickened fluids, oxygen. If we’re
going to be gone long enough,”
he adds, “we’ll load up the
oxygen concentrator.”
At night, Kylie struggles
with sleep apnea. Typically,
the treatment for that is a
continuous positive airway
pressure machine, or CPAP,
which seals the nose with a
mask in order to force air into
the airway manually. Kylie was
5 years old when she got her
first one. She