Jake Larose is a now healthy 13-year-old boy who experienced a severe medical journey after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome from eating a hamburger in March 2014. His condition rapidly progressed, leading to acute renal failure, peritonitis, bowel perforation, severe septic shock, and acute respiratory failure. Throughout his stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital, Jake received extensive multidisciplinary care and rehabilitation. Despite experiencing delirium and hallucinations during his ICU stay, Jake made a remarkable recovery and was eventually discharged home. Though he still requires ongoing medical care, nearly a decade later, Jake is doing well.
Jake's ICU experience was a result of the collaborative efforts of numerous healthcare professionals, including intensivists, subspecialists, nurses, therapists, and his family. Particularly noteworthy was the active involvement of Jake's mother, Kimberly LaRose, a member of the Komansky Center Family Advisory Council (FAC), who participated in daily rounds and continued to be a parent even in the face of her child's critical illness. She employed various non-pharmacologic methods to help alleviate Jake's delirium, such as therapeutic touch, familiar items from home, customized music playlists, and bedtime stories.
Recognizing the potential benefits of journaling in promoting emotional well-being and reducing post-traumatic stress symptoms, the PICU team suggested the idea to Kim. Together with the ICU staff, Kim created a picture book that chronicled Jake's ICU stay, providing him with a developmental framework to process his experiences. Jake continues to refer to this book as his "ICU book."
For his bar mitzvah, Jake created a "Mitzvah Project" to give back to others. He formatted and printed PICU journal templates to distribute to patients currently being seen in our PICU. Inspired by how much the journaling process helped him, Jake's goal is to provide the same support to fellow patients and their families. On April 26th, Jake and his mom distributed the journals, bringing smiles to the faces of the patients they visited.
Learn more about Jake's story.