A new wing at Detroit's Children's Hospital is opening in stages with the focus on pediatric critical care.
The whole plan was put together with the input of doctors and nurses, but also their patients and families because for many of them, the hospital becomes a second home.
Jennifer Anglebrandt and her son, Eli, know all too well what it's like to spend time at Children's Hospital of Michigan. Eli has been cancer free for three years, but was diagnosed with leukemia in 2011.
They loved the staff and support they got there, but Jennifer remembers feeling like the hospital needed to make some changes. Things like just being in Eli's room wasn't always convenient.
"We couldn't have everybody in there at once, couldn't have people stay overnight, there were not showers on the floor we could use," she said.
But now, patents and their families have all of that in the new pediatric critical care tower. The 6-story building includes a new pediatric ICU.
The old NICU would would have as many as eight newborns in the same room along with their families, but now, babies have their own room and space for their family to be by their side. It even includes a bassinet and pull out couch for the family, and no waiting rooms.
"We took spaces and made them family friendly, in addition to being spaces to heal and cure," Children's Hospital CEO Luanne Thomas Ewald said.
The $155 million addition has been years in the making.
The pediatric ICU is expected to open next week, with the entire critical care tower to be finished in early 2018.
