The Section of Pediatric Critical Care provides coverage of the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in Children’s Hospital University of Illinois (CHUI) within the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. The PICU is a busy medical/surgical unit with the capacity to cover a broad range of critical illnesses and/or complex diseases in infants, children, and adolescents.

We are recognized as one of only a few PICUs approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) as a certified Pediatric Critical Care Center (PCCC) in the state of Illinois. Our PICU is staffed by highly skilled nursing and ancillary specialists who, along with board certified/eligible physicians, are dedicated to providing high-quality and compassionate care.

Critical Care is among the services shared in the CCH (Cook County Health) / UI Health Partnership for Pediatric Care that was announced in 2021. Participating faculty at both institutions are cross-credentialed and onboarded to provide their expertise in the care of critically ill pediatric patients at John H. Stroger Children’s Hospital of Cook County and the Children’s Hospital University of Illinois.

Meet the team:

Cortez, Edmundo, MD, MHA
Chief, Section of Pediatric Critical Care
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

Wang, Jenny, MD
Medical Director, PICU
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

Harding, Meghan, DO
Assistant Director, Pediatric Residency Program
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics

Akintorin, Abayomi, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor

Oranu, Chinedu, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor

Affiliated Faculty:

Ardila, Silvia, MD
Cook County Health
Clinical Assistant Professor

Sulayman, Naseem, MD
Cook County Health
Clinical Assistant Professor

What We Treat:

Respiratory distress and failure
Neurologic emergencies including status epilepticus
Endocrinologic emergencies including diabetic ketoacidosis
Kidney transplant and dialysis
Serious infection such as sepsis
Inborn errors of metabolism with metabolic crises
Post-operative care of surgical specialty patients including general surgery
Otolaryngology
Oral maxillofacial surgery

INSTRUCTIONS: In order to add a sidebar anchor:

  1. Duplicate the existing item, listed as a 1/6 text field. (Or create a 1/6 column and add a text field, modify the class so it’s exactly “additionalAnchor”).
  2. Modify the text field inside the 1/6 column. Inside there, modify the HYPERLINK so that it would go to a corresponding section with a “#” in front of it. (Example, we have a “chief” section on the page, then it would make sense to have the hyperlink go to “#chief”)
  3. Then change the hyperlink TEXT to a appropriate label.
  4. IMPORTANT: If not done already, go into that CONTAINER that corresponds to your anchor (i.e. Meet The Chiefs), and add an ID matching the anchor’s HYPERLINK WITHOUT the “#”, i.e. “chief”.
  5. (If using side bar widget box, then there’s a saved copy of a widget box COLUMN, grab it in the column library, it should 1/6 of a length of a column.)

NOTE: Order added to the sidebar is from last to first.