Pediatric surgeon Dr. Deborah Albert recently joined the staff at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Betty H. Cameron Women and Children’s Hospital.

Albert joins a team of highly trained specialists in pediatrics in the region’s only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Hospital officials said Albert will help children from Wilmington and the region who need either routine or emergency surgeries.

“I am thrilled to be caring for patients in the Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital,” Albert said in a prepared statement. “The team here is so wonderful and passionate about what they do and I’m looking forward to contributing to this level of care.”

Albert began seeing patients in June as the region’s only full-time, board-certified pediatric surgeon. Hospital officials said she performs procedures ranging from routine to complex appendicitis, hernia, birth defects, traumatic injury, and malignant and benign tumors.

“Children in this region have a tremendous ally in Dr. Albert. Her specialized training and expertise will allow patients in our area the comfort of knowing they have the very best care available in their community,” Barbara Buechler, administrator of the Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said in a prepared statement.

Pediatric surgeons perform procedures on children ranging from newborns to 18-year-olds. Albert said one of the reasons she was drawn to the field was because she was fascinated by the differences in the pathology of diseases between children and adults.

Albert said that when a child and an adult face a medical condition like appendicitis, the treatment may be completely different for each age group.

Pediatric surgeons have four years of medical school training, five years of surgery residency and two years of training in pediatric surgery.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be practicing in a place that is growing and evolving like the Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital,” Albert said.

“I plan to be actively involved in the growth of the services here and I hope my skills and experience will play a key role in that expansion.”

Dr. Joseph Pino, director of pediatrics at the hospital, said in a prepared statement that because of the nature of their illness or injury, children in the Pediatric ICU “can have a variety of unique and urgent medical needs, including surgical intervention.”