Spring 2010 - SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center

Living With
Complicated Pneumonia
During her January visit, Sara Rohrbough, 17, completes a pulmonary function test with Pat Lewis, RRT. Cardinal Glennon helped Sara through complicated pneumonia in the fall.
On New Years Day 2010, Sara Rohrbough, 17, performed
in the color guard at the half time show of
the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, FL.
Today, Jan. 15, however, she is back in St. Louis at SSM
Cardinal Glennon.
Though not one to get sick, Sara got the flu in late October
and stayed sick for more than a month. Finally, she gave in
to her shortness of breath, cough and racing heart and visited
the emergency department at SSM St. Clare Health Center in
Fenton, MO.
After an exam and chest x-ray, Sara was told a surgeon would
have to drain the fluid that accumulated between her lung
and chest wall through a tube in her back. The mucus, however,
was so thick a pediatric surgeon would have to perform
the procedure.
“I was so scared and it was so overwhelming,” Sara says of
being rolled to the operating room at Cardinal Glennon. “But
then I just woke up, and it was over and everything was fine.”
Sara suffered from a pneumonia complicated by the development
of an empyema, which is a rare complication relative to
all pneumonias. This type of illness often requires admission
and IV antibiotics. It may also require either a chest tube or
surgical approach to evacuate the fluid.
After her surgery, Sara spent five days at Cardinal Glennon.
She returned for three follow up visits and will come back this
summer for what Blake Noyes, M.D., anticipates to be her
last visit. During this final check up, Sara will receive a chest
x-ray, an exam and lung function tests.
Then, hopefully, she won’t be back at Cardinal Glennon any
time soon.
“It wasn’t one of the greatest things
because I had to have surgery. But if
you are going to get stuck in a
hospital, it’s best to get stuck in a good
one like Cardinal Glennon.”
— Sara Rohrbough, 17
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