Safety of summer camp for children with chronic and/or life threatening illness.

The purpose of this work was to retrospectively evaluate the medical needs of children with chronic and/or life-threatening illness attending summer camp at Barretstown Gang Camp (Ireland). Data on medical facility visits collected over 28 sessions (2120 children) between 1998 and 2001 were reviewed. Children originated from 20 different European countries. The most common diagnoses were leukaemia, lymphoma, sarcoma and brain tumour. Forty-eight percent of the children required medical care during their stay and 3386 total visits were recorded. The most common cause of medical facility visit was pain, followed by injury (trauma, bruises, burn) and flu/cold symptoms. Only 8 brief hospital transfers were necessary for the 2120 children. This large-scale study confirms the safety of a well-organized medically supervised summer therapeutic recreational program for children with chronic conditions, including children undergoing chemotherapy treatment and factor replacement.