Children are not just miniature adults. Perhaps no one realizes that more than the medical specialists at Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center here in Memphis. One such medical specialist is Le Bonheur pediatric emergency specialist Dr. Jay Pershad. With more than 5,000 hospitals in the country, Pershad points out that about 250 are dedicated to meeting the needs
of children. And Le Bonheur is one of those hospitals.

“In a hospital setting, when you have someone who is not used to seeing kids all the time, they could miss a red flag,” he said. “There are situations where you need someone who is trained with taking care of children. That's what we at Le Bonheur do.”

For 14 years, Pershad has worked as an emergency room attending physician but recently, though, he moved into a new position. He has taken over as medical director of Le Bonheur’s transport and communication operations. “Not only do we take care of kids who walk into our center, but we also take care of kids who come in through our communication center,” he said.

For Pershad, caring for children is his passion. He said he feels blessed to be able to help kids feel better. “It gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction,” he said. “If I can ensure that our kids are healthy, then they can grow up to be productive citizens and significant contributors to our society.

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”In the fall 2011 issue of Memphis Crossroads Magazine, writer Rosalind Guy spoke with Dr. Pershad of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital about his work as a pediatric emergency specialist. In our special web-only content, Dr. Pershad talks about the Communication Center and their work with PediFlite.

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital has a transport team that works with physicians from neighboring hospitals to provide resources and staff specially trained to handle young patients. PediFlite handles calls that come in from anywhere within 150 miles of the city. “We can bring kids by ambulance,” Pershad said. “We have a dedicated ambulance service. We also have a helicopter that can go and bring kids that are very sick from other hospitals or other areas who have reached out to us for help.”

For more than 30 years, Pedi-Flite has transported critically ill and injured children in the Greater Memphis area. In 2009 alone, Pedi-Flite transported more than 2,000 patients. Pedi-Flite uses a network of partners including the pilots and helicopters of the Memphis Medical Center Air Ambulance Service, Hospital Wing, as well as their very own specially equipped ground ambulances.

The team that makes up Pedi-Flite includes pediatric and neonatal critical care nurses, pediatric and neonatal respiratory therapists, emergency medical technicians, paramedics and intensive care physicians who are on standby 24 hours a day.

For more information about PediFlite, visit: http://www.lebonheur.org/lebonheur/Our+Services/Clinical+Specialties/Pedi-Flite
About the helicopters at Hospital Wing: http://www.hospitalwing.com/pediflite.html

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Memphis Crossroads, the Chamber's quarterly economic development magazine, is available free at select locations throughout Memphis (including Schnuck's markets), via mail for Chamber members and at the Chamber's offices on the 2nd floor of the Falls Building, 22 N. Front Street.