Pediatric Trauma - Hennepin County Medical Center

Critical Care Profile
Q and A withQ and A with
Andrew Kiragu, MD, FAAP
Andrew Kiragu, MD, FAAP
Dr. Andrew Waititu Kiragu is the medical
director of the pediatric intensive care unit
and the co-medical director of the Pediatric
Traumatic Brain Injury program at
Hennepin County Medical Center. He is
also an assistant professor of pediatrics at
the University of Minnesota Medical
School. He completed his undergraduate
studies at Dalhousie University in Nova
Scotia, Canada, and subsequently
graduated from Howard University in
Washington, D.C., with an MD degree in
1994. Dr. Kiragu served his residency in
internal medicine and pediatrics at the
University of Minnesota followed by a
fellowship in pediatric critical care at the
University where he was one of the Walter
Ramsey Endowment Fellows. During his
fellowship and as a staff physician, he has
received several awards in recognition of
his commitment to resident and medical
school education. Dr. Kiragu was awarded
a Vikings Foundation grant to study the
inflammatory effects of cardiopulmonary
bypass. He was the co-primary investigator
for a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation to establish an Injury-Free
Coalition for Kids site in Minnesota at
Hennepin, with a goal of studying and
preventing injury prevention here in the
Twin Cities. Dr. Kiragu is board-certified in
pediatrics and pediatric critical care.
Why did you choose pediatrics?
I have always enjoyed being around kids.
The kids seem to get my sometimes goofy
nature. Kids are the most “fun” patients.
When they are well, they are energetic,
curious, funny, loving human beings. Even
if they are really sick, children are quite
resilient. When they recover from their
illnesses, it makes what we do so
worthwhile. When they donʼt get better,
thatʼs the hardest. You grieve for the lost
potential and the pain that the families feel.
When you work in Pediatrics, you take
care of more than just the patient. You also
have to be aware of the needs of family
members and friends. We once had a case
of an injured teenager who had a large
group of classmates come to see him. His
family requested that we explain his
injuries to them and so we gathered all
these kids and some of their parents in a
conference room to talk about their friend.
Now that I have my own family (children
ages 9 and 11), it makes me more
cognizant of how fragile and precious life
is. I am always the one saying, “be careful”
to the kids. When we are with friends and
the kids are doing crazy stuff, everyone is
always looking at me to see my reaction.
How has your interest in the care of
critically injured and ill children shaped
your career?
As the director of the pediatric intensive
care unit, by necessity I have to interact
with a variety of people, my physician
colleagues, Hennepin staff and leadership.
This takes me beyond my usual clinical
role as a physician. There are a number of
new initiatives with regard to pediatrics we
have undertaken here at Hennepin County
Medical Center, and my colleagues know
that I am available to support these efforts.
If I identify an opportunity to advance the
care of children here at Hennepin, I can
bring people together to make it happen. I
enjoy doing that.
I am also involved in the Injury Free
Coalition for Kids (IFCK) and serve as the
principal investigator for IFCK-Minneapolis.
Through this organization, research in the
area of injury prevention is being
conducted to identify which injury
prevention measures are most effective.
Injury prevention education methods and
driving behaviors in teens are among
several topics that we have studied. The
Injury Free Coalition for Kids has worked
with other groups, including AAA-
Minnesota to provide the state legislature
with information useful in improving traffic
laws. I am currently on the boards of
10 | Approaches in Critical Care | June 2011