Queen Victoria Equipment Donation
Recently, the Queen Victoria Auxiliary (QVA) Division of The Friends of Women’s and Children’s Hospital presented a Syringe Pump Docking Station, five Foetal Doppler Monitors and four Incubator Scales to Phil Robinson, Executive Director of Corporate Services and other WCH staff members. The total cost of $16,850 was raised from very successful events including a Film Night and Bridge Day. The QVA would like to thank all those that supported the events, making this incredible donation possible. Phil Robinson thanked the committee for their continued support of the Women’s and Babies’ Division. The Friends would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Angove Family Winemakers for their continued support of these events, Without the amazing support provided by Victoria and her family with donations and helping at the events this amount would not have been raised.
Incubator Scales
Maintaining weight can be difficult for some adults but for newborn babies the difficulties in body development, feeding of fluids and nutrition; and temperature exposure can be harsh to a newborn. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (WCH) serves to care for these premature infants.
Due to an increased demand for scales in the NICU, the QVA raised $9,000 allowing for the purchase of four new sets of scales.
Dr Anu Kochar, Consultant Neonatologist explains
“The incubator scales have made a huge difference to the extremely fragile premature babies in the nursery. These little babies are nursed in incubators to keep them warm. They have multiple life sustaining devices, tubes and monitoring leads attached to them. Weighing them outside the incubator would end up being this huge task requiring multiple nurses and would put the babies at risk of not only getting cold but also one of the important lines or tubes getting dislodged in the process. This leads to reluctance and pre planning to check something as important and simple as the weight of a little baby. With the help of the new incubator scales this can be quickly achieved without risks to the preterm baby and an important aspect of the baby’s journey can be monitored easily”.
Docking Station
Many of the most unwell babies within the Women’s and Children’s Hospital need to receive treatment by the administration of multiple drugs or fluids simultaneously. In a setting that is already very busy and crowded with many other items of monitoring or treatment equipment anything that makes this environment simpler and safer is a great benefit.
“Infusion pumps are used to deliver a precise dose of drugs and/or fluids in a very controlled manner. Many of our babies will often need multiple pumps to deliver the fluids required simultaneously. In these circumstances a “docking station” can be used to manage the pumps most effectively, giving staff ready and immediate access to the pump controls and allowing the IV lines to be more safely managed “
said Adrian Richards, Biomedical Engineering Manager WCH
The handover of a newly purchased docking station from the QVA will help to provide the vital care for babies being cared for in the Nurseries within the hospital. The quick snap-on and snap-off syringe pump attachment of the docking station will help to provide the necessary care in a timely manner for patients and nurses alike.
Foetal Doppler
The Foetal Doppler is an instrument that detects the heartbeat of a foetus using the Doppler Effect to simulate an audible heartbeat and thus help determine a heart rate and auscultation of heart condition.
Part of the process of checking up and managing the baby’s health via ultrasound and Doppler: if it is suspected that there was an issue present with heart rhythm, a Doppler monitor would be applied to the abdomen to check the heart rate and its rhythm.
Detection of heart rate occurs from the small vibrations through the skin transmitted by heart beats of the baby.
Treatment of heart defects help to facilitate the successful delivery and survival rate of babies within the NICU. Thankfully with the support of the QVA, and the five additional Doppler’s, WCH can improve the care and earlier preventative treatment for newborns.
Thank you to all the QVA members for their continued support and if you would like to become a member of the auxiliary, please contact the Friends office on 8161 8445 for more information.
To make a donation to support additional equipment purchases please click on the link below.