RN, CCRN
Pediatric Critical Care Transport Nurse
Yale New Haven Children's Hospital
New Haven, CT
Lola is an experienced nurse with 40 years in the profession, including 30 years as a flight nurse. She began her career at Cook County Trauma Center in Chicago before transitioning to fixed-wing flight nursing in Illinois. She later served as a helicopter flight nurse in both California and New Hampshire.
Currently, Lola is a member of the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital Pediatric Critical Care Transport Team, providing ground and helicopter transport for critically ill and injured children. In addition to her clinical role, she facilitates simulation training and skills education for pediatric critical care nurses, paramedics, and medical residents at Yale.
This presentation provides a practical, prehospital-focused review of common pediatric respiratory emergencies, including epiglottitis, croup, asthma, bronchiolitis, RSV, and pneumonia. The session begins with a foundational overview of pediatric respiratory assessment, emphasizing simple tools such as the Pediatric Assessment Triangle (PAT).
Interventions are discussed using an “always versus sometimes” framework to help providers prioritize critical actions in time-sensitive situations. The presentation explores why children are uniquely predisposed to rapid airway compromise, highlighting key anatomic and physiologic differences between pediatric and adult airways and how these differences influence assessment, decision-making, and treatment.
Participants will learn to recognize early signs of respiratory deterioration, understand treatment goals, and differentiate upper versus lower airway pathology with pediatric-specific considerations. Finally, the concept of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” of transport is introduced to help prehospital providers determine when to “stay and play” versus “load and go,” reinforcing sound clinical judgment in high-stress pediatric respiratory cases.
