Three special children and their families will meet for the first time at the Royal Children’s Hospital on Sunday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the use of High Frequency Ventilators (HFV) at the hospital – technology that saved their lives.
Minister for Health, the Hon. John Thwaites will join Daniel 10, Mikaela 8 and one-year-old Rhian, their families and the staff who pioneered this technology in 1992.
The hospital’s Neonatal Unit was the first in Australia to use this technique of mechanical ventilation on critically ill babies with severe lung disease. Medical and nursing staff underwent 12 months of training before using it for the first time.
HFV improves the lungs ability to provide oxygen to the body. By the use of very high frequency breaths of between 360 and 900 a minute, it allows efficient carbon dioxide removal while protecting the lungs from damage. It is most useful in the care of babies with severe lung damage caused by prematurity, pneumonia, or congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
Ten-year-old Daniel Dindas was one of the first babies to benefit from the new technology. Two years later Mikaela Cowan was born at 25 weeks and survived thanks to the new ventilator. And just a year ago, when all else failed, little Rhian J’bara’s parents found the miracle they were praying for in the form of a high frequency jet ventilator – RCH is the only hospital in Australia with jet ventilation, an even more specialised form of high frequency ventilation.
Since 1992 over 350 critically ill babies with the most severe forms of neonatal lung disease have been cared for using HFV, with a survival rate of 75%. This method of care has become standard practice in many parts of the country, with much of the training provided by staff from RCH.
- EVENT: Reunion and party with families and staff Minister’s tour of the neonatal unit
- DAY: Sunday 13th October 2002
- TIME : 12.30
- PLACE: 2nd floor Neonatal Unit Royal Children’s Hospital
- PIC OPS: Minister Thwaites with kids, party pics, birthday cake.
Contact Julie Webber 0407 327 418 or 9345 5522 and page.
This story appeared on Channel 7 news 13th October.