Infant Warmers for Critical Care
For premature babies or infants in critical care, maintaining body temperature in critical. Thanks to the Good Friday Appeal, new and improved infant warmers will be used in critical care units.
Funding from the Good Friday Appeal has gone towards the purchase of new infant radiant warmers and hybrid incubators at The Royal Children’s Hospital, keeping our most vulnerable babies safe, warm and closer to their parents touch.
The new infant warmers and hybrid incubators also place staff in closer contact with critically ill infants, and allow for resuscitation and care equipment to be immediately at hand.
Four-month-old Archie was one of the first patients to be supported by the new state-of-the-art devices. Born 11 weeks early, Archie required a hybrid incubator days after his premature arrival.
The night Archie was born he was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the RCH by ambulance, where he was diagnosed with tachycardia, a type of heart rhythm disorder in which the heart beats faster than normal while at rest.
Being in the new hybrid incubator while he was in hospital for treatment meant it was easy for his mum Danica and dad Shaun to be close to Archie.
“Having Archie in the hybrid incubator meant we didn’t have that barrier between us. It was easy to touch him, to give him kisses, to change his nappy, it made a big difference,” Danica said.
The Director of Neonatal Medicine at the RCH, Professor Rod Hunt, said a major benefit of the new technology was that it gave doctors, nurses and allied health staff better access to critically ill and premature babies, like Archie.
“It allows us to weigh babies without removing them from the cot so that we can better monitor their nutrition. It also allows us to do procedures and surgery on babies without taking them off their bed because the sides can come down,” Prof Hunt said.
Posted June 2018
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