Children’s intensive care

Children’s intensive care provides medical and nursing care for critically ill children from birth to 16 years.

Children can become critically ill when one or more of their organs start to fail. This can cause them to become so ill there is a risk that they may die. 

Children’s intensive care aims to support children through their illness until they recover to continue life with their family.

Critical illness can be cause by a number of reasons

• children may be born with physical problems (called a congenital abnormality)
• becoming ill because of overwhelming infection
• they have an accident that threatens their life  
• a deterioration in the an existing medical condition (for example cancer, epilepsy or asthma)