RPA BABY MATTERS SPRING 2012 RPA Newborn Care NICU NEWS A/Prof David Osborn, Director NICU It’s hard to believe how fast 2012 has flown at RPA Newborn Care. Last week we had our first break from being near to capacity, but that was only a short reprieve. We are very pleased to announce the addition of two new Neonatologists to our NICU team, Drs Tracey Lutz and Angela McGillivray to help care for our babies – a big welcome to both who many of you will already know. We are very grateful for the generous support of Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club who funded two new humidicribs, and the wonderful efforts of Little Wonder parent group who raised the funds for a new humidicrib and a jaundice reader for use in the NICU. We were very fortunate to receive another two new humidicribs through Variety, the Children’s Charity and Humpty Dumpty Foundation. We are now at the point of commissioning our new resuscitation platforms; comprising of an open care resuscitation platform, humidifier, ventilator and uninterruptable power supply. We are planning to have two of these platforms, one for use in delivery suite and one in the operating theatres. Funding for these has been through donations to our recent appeals which was matched by the Sydney Local Health District – a good example of value adding. Our current research efforts cover many aspects of newborn care with the goal of improving the health of our babies. We are now giving all very premature and sick infants, who cannot take feeds, parenteral nutrition as soon as they have a central intravenous line on admission to the NICU. This has resulted in greatly improved growth and nutrition. We have now completed enrolments for the ProPrems trial of probiotic supplements (‘healthy’ bacteria) for very premature infants and are now following all infants in our development follow -up clinic. We are using high flow humidified nasal cannula to help wean infants off CPAP. This hopefully will mean that they are able to commence suck feeds earlier and hopefully get home earlier. It certainly helps parents to see their baby’s face unencumbered by the bulky CPAP prongs. Finally, we are exploring ways of avoiding mechanical ventilation altogether, particularly by the use of alternative ways of giving artificial surfactant by use of a thin catheter whilst infants are spontaneously breathing. All these interventions hold great promise for better outcomes and healthier children in the future. As the Director of NICU, I wish to express our sincere gratitude, we simply couldn’t do what we do without your ongoing support. NURSING DEPARTMENT NEWS Simon Burke This year has been another very busy year for RPA Newborn Care. From our nursing team Kelly Stone, Kim Collins and Ester DeHaan are completing their Grad Dip in Child and Family Health Nursing. Kylie Davies, Kirsty Warner, Angel Wai and Rebekah Hallet have completed the Introduction to NICU nursing course. Marina Roti and Emily Payne have been working in rotations as part of the Newborn Family Support Team working alongside Val Drayton, Kelly Stone and Lenore Wright. As part of the Baby Friendly Health Initiative, we continue to support early breast feeding in recovery following cesarean sections for healthy babies allowing mothers and babies to stay together in a safe environment. Jill Thomas has joined the team working with Kim Suttor and several other nurses often work in theatre to receive and care for babies born from emergency and elective caesarian sections. We are delighted to have recently received new humidicribs donated by Humpty Dumpty Foundation, Variety and Little Wonder. We are especially grateful to Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club for generously funding two new humidicribs. This has allowed us to replace all our old humidicribs with new ones. In May we had our Olympic moment when our team participated in the Balmoral Burn organised each year by the Humpty Dumpty Foundation. We were very proud to get back to first place in the No Burn Walk! We were up against some friendly competition from some of the other hospitals who, despite giving it their best shot, were unable to keep up with us! Simon Burke Nursing Unit Manager A/Prof David Osborn
Transcript
RPA BABY MATTERS
SPRING 2012
RPANewbornCare
NICU NEWSA/Prof David Osborn, Director NICU
It’s hard to believe how fast 2012 has flown at RPA Newborn Care. Last week we had our first break from being near to capacity, but that was only a short reprieve. We are very pleased to announce the addition of two new Neonatologists to our NICU team, Drs Tracey Lutz and Angela McGillivray to help care for our babies – a big welcome to both who many of you will already know.
We are very grateful for the generous support of Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club who funded two new humidicribs, and the wonderful efforts of Little Wonder parent group who raised the funds for a new humidicrib and a jaundice reader for use in the NICU. We were very fortunate to receive another two new humidicribs through Variety, the Children’s Charity and Humpty Dumpty Foundation.
We are now at the point of commissioning our new resuscitation platforms; comprising of an open care resuscitation platform, humidifier, ventilator and uninterruptable power supply. We are planning to have two of these platforms, one for use in delivery suite and one in the operating theatres. Funding for these has been through donations to our recent appeals which was matched by the Sydney Local Health District – a good example of value adding.
Our current research efforts cover many aspects of newborn care with the goal of improving the health of our babies. We
are now giving all very premature and sick infants, who cannot take feeds, parenteral nutrition as soon as they have a central intravenous line on admission to the NICU. This has resulted in greatly improved growth and nutrition.
We have now completed enrolments for the ProPrems trial of probiotic supplements (‘healthy’ bacteria) for very premature infants and are now following all infants in our development follow -up clinic.
We are using high flow humidified nasal cannula to help wean infants off CPAP. This hopefully will mean that they are able to commence suck feeds earlier and hopefully get home earlier. It certainly helps parents to see their baby’s face unencumbered by the bulky CPAP prongs. Finally, we are exploring ways of avoiding mechanical ventilation altogether, particularly by the use of alternative ways of giving artificial surfactant by use of a thin catheter whilst infants are spontaneously breathing. All these interventions hold great promise for better outcomes and healthier children in the future.
As the Director of NICU, I wish to express our sincere gratitude, we simply couldn’t do what we do without your ongoing support.
NURSING DEPARTMENT NEWSSimon Burke
This year has been another very busy year for RPA Newborn Care. From our nursing team Kelly Stone, Kim Collins and Ester DeHaan are completing their Grad Dip in Child and Family Health Nursing. Kylie Davies, Kirsty Warner, Angel Wai and Rebekah Hallet have completed the Introduction to NICU nursing course.
Marina Roti and Emily Payne have been working in rotations as part of the Newborn Family Support Team working alongside Val Drayton, Kelly Stone and Lenore Wright.
As part of the Baby Friendly Health Initiative, we continue to support early breast feeding in recovery following cesarean sections for healthy babies allowing mothers and babies to stay together in a safe environment. Jill Thomas has joined the team working with Kim Suttor and several other nurses often work in theatre to receive and care for babies born from emergency and elective caesarian sections.
We are delighted to have recently received new humidicribs donated by Humpty Dumpty Foundation, Variety and Little Wonder. We are especially grateful to Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club for generously funding two new humidicribs. This has allowed us to replace all our old humidicribs with new ones.
In May we had our Olympic moment when our team participated in the Balmoral Burn organised each year by the Humpty Dumpty Foundation. We were very proud to get back to first place in the No Burn Walk! We were up against some friendly competition from some of the other hospitals who, despite giving it their best shot, were unable to keep up with us! Simon Burke
Nursing Unit Manager
A/Prof David Osborn
Thank You to Our Supporters In alphabetical order:
8 City of Sydney RSL and Community Club
8 City Tattersalls Club
8 Commonwealth Bank Staff Community Fund for generously funding a jaundice reader.
8 Connor McCormick and Moira Keane for verygenerously funding the Billisoft Blanket.
8 E J Hart Group through Humpty Dumpty Foundationfor generously funding a humidicrib
8 Heather Reeves for the lovely and warm hand made quilts
8 Lindt & Sprungli for the delicious chocolate Eastereggs and gifts for NICU’s Easter Hat Parade
8 Lynne Gordon for all the beautiful sewing for the nursery.
8 Marj Hynes, from Queensland, for the exquisite cotton baby beanies.
8 NSW Bowlers Club
8 Windale Trefoil Guild for nursery bed linen.
Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL ClubThe Club with a Big Heart
In 2011 Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club generously donated $27,500 for a new humidicrib for the NICU, only to do so once again in 2012.
Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club Chief Executive Officer, Dean Thomas, said the Club was thrilled to have the opportunity to provide another humidicrib to help treat sick babies at RPA.
Being equipped with the best and most up-to-date equipment is critical to ensure RPA Newborn Care continues to offer world class care and treatment to around 900 sick babies per year. We are extremely grateful to Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club for their outstanding generosity allowing us to purchase not one but two life-saving humidicribs to help us achieve our aim.
From left, clockwise: Nick Evans, David Osborn, Simon Burke, Dean Thomas CEO Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club, Berta Azzi and baby Samuel
Ken Cahill Executive Director RPA Hospital, Dean Thomas CEO
Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club
Left: Ken Cahill Executive Director RPA Hospital, Dean Thomas CEO Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL Club
Nick Evans RPA Newborn Care Head of Department, Rebecca Morgan president Little Wonder
L - R: Narelle Vakaros, Nick Evans RPA Newborn Care Head of Department, Rebecca Morgan, Olivia Dixon, David Osborn Director NICU
Olivia Dixon, Rebecca Morgan and Narelle Vakaros from Little Wonder
Little Wonder, our parents fundraising committee through their wonderful and ongoing fundraising efforts throughout the year have funded a humidicrib in 2011 and a jaundice meter in 2012. Thank you to all the parents, families and friends for their fantastic support.
THE HISTORY OF BABY HUMIDICRIBSDahlia Brigham, Fundraising Manager
Thanks to the very generous support of the community, we have now replaced all our aging humidicribs with brand new, state of the art humidicribs.
Humidicribs are a quintessential part of every newborn intensive care unit (NICU) around the world. They are vital in saving the lives of premature babies. Yet few of us know the history of humidicribs, or baby incubators, as they were first known.
At the turn of the 20th-century, theories of eugenics were prevalent among American scientists, and many doctors believed that premature babies were not worth saving. More often than not, these newborns are left to perish at home without medical care, making premature births one of the highest causes of infant mortality in the world.
However one ambitious pediatrician named Dr. Martin Couney was determined to turn the tide of public opinion towards saving these infants.” The Incubator Doctor” as Dr. Couney was informally known, was born in Germany, studied medicine in Breslau, Berlin and Leipzig and later in Paris under Dr. Pierre C. Budin, noted pediatrician, who developed a method of saving the prematurely born.
In May 1901, Dr. Couney arrived in Buffalo New York to attend the Pan-American Exhibition which intended to showcase scientific progress in the Western Hemisphere. He had with him a strange new invention, a glass and metal container that resembled an incubator for baby chicks. But this contraption was designed to save the lives of premature human babies by maintaining a warm temperature and strict hygiene, which Couney believed were key to the survival of premature infants.
For weeks on end he displayed eight “infant incubators” with actual newborn babies inside, including one who weighed just under a kilogram, who became known as the “smallest infant who ever lived.” Amazingly, all the babies flourished stunning the crowds at the Expo and making national news.
Despite this huge success, Couney couldn’t conquer the skepticism of his medical colleagues who found no prestige or value in saving “preemies.” Hospitals and doctors were reluctant to adopt his invention. Banks were unwilling to finance production of his pricey incubators.
But just as the miracle machine seems doomed to sink into obscurity, a New York showman named Frederic Thompson came to the rescue of Couney with an unusual offer. Thompson was constructing Luna Park at Coney Island and he had an idea for a scene-stealing sideshow: a permanent exhibit showcasing Dr. Couney’s “Infant Incubators”. Amongst the midgets and bearded ladies, why not display impossibly tiny babies who are clinging to life with the aid of modern machines?
Hoping to popularise the groundbreaking invention, while saving babies who might otherwise die, Couney’s “Infant Incubators” exhibit made its sensational Coney Island debut in 1903. He accepted his tiny patients at no charge from desperate parents and hospitals eager to hand off the seemingly hopeless infants. Visitors flocked to the wondrous exhibit, handing over 25 cents to marvel at the tiny new residents of Coney Island. Inside their shiny bank of incubators, the babies each wore an identification necklace like the one currently on display at the Coney Island History Project museum.
Despite being ostracized and disgraced by the medical profession, Couney continued to operate at Luna Park, where he practiced in exile from the medical establishment. Premature babies continued to be born, and desperate parents with no better options still sent them to Couney. By some estimates, he was able to save 90% of the premature infants placed in his care.
Over time, his incubator babies grew up to be healthy adults, like 70-year-old Carol Boyce Heinisch, who wore this necklace and knit cap during her time as an Incubator Baby. Couney staged reunions for his “graduates” and publicized their good health at his sideshows. Scientific studies began showing what Couney always believed, that premature babies were worth saving and could grow up to be healthy adults with high IQ levels.
By the 1930’s, the medical profession reignited its interest in Couney’s incubators and he was seen as a pioneer. But it wasn’t until 1943, thirty-six years after Couney’s Coney Island debut, that the first neonatology center in the USA opened at New York Hospital. Proud to have achieved his lifelong goal, Couney promptly shut down his sideshow hospital and retired. “I made propaganda for the preemies,” he famously said, “My work is done.”
L: Couney’s baby incubator circa 1910 R: RPA Newborn Care’s new humidicribs, 2012
Today, this baby necklace and knit cap on display at the Coney Island History Project serve as a poignant reminder of the groundbreaking sideshow that not only changed the course of medical history but directly saved the lives of millions of babies around the globe.
| Incubator Building
| Coney Island
} Coney Island Incubators
|
Babies cornerA huge thank you for the wonderful cot sheets, “belts” and under head covers we received. The NICU team is always delighted to receive them. From jungle prints to Disney characters, the bright cot bedding is like a breath of fresh air!Donations of cot linen and crib covers (to assist minimising light and noise particularly during quiet time) are always needed and very much appreciated.For patterns and inquiries please contact Nikki on 9515 8459.
Update on MorganAs Morgan’s first birthday approaches, we are delighted to share with you the news that Morgan, born at 27 weeks is now a beautiful and healthy “almost” one year old! Morgan will be celebrating her first birthday in Sydney with her family.
Happy First Birthday Morgan!
| Morgan 2012 at 11 months old
Memorial FundsThe death of a child is very painful, few things in life compare with the loss, emptiness and heartache parents and families feel when a child dies. RPA Newborn Care provides parents the opportunity to establish a Memorial Fund in their baby’s name in honour of their baby and as an ongoing testimonial to their baby’s life. The Fund can be designated to fund a particular piece of equipment, or can be directed to the annual campaign. Donations to Memorial Funds are fully tax-deductible.We are honored and privileged to have the following Memorial Funds:
• The Kai Emerson Memorial Fund• The Leo James Crisafulli Memorial Fund• The Sullivan Darcy Kippax Memorial Fund• The Harriet Slack-Smith Memorial Fund
For further information on Memorial Funds please call Dahlia on 9515 8456 or 0412381849.
| Morgan 2011 at 6 days old
|
Little Wonder Parents Fundraising Committee RPA Newborn Care
Little Wonder is the Parents’ Committee in support of RPA Newborn Care. We are a
group of parents who have experienced the RPA Newborn Care journey first hand. We view our efforts as a way of giving back to the unit that saved our babies and allowed them to prosper.
On May 6th 2012 we held a Ladies High Tea at The Loft, King Street Wharf. A lovely day was had by all with a wonderful view over the harbour, some scrumptious treats and exceptionally good company! Thank you to all those who attended to support us and a big thank you also to our raffle donors.
On August 12th we had a fantastic team enter the Sydney City to Surf. This amazing group of people raised over $7,000 and we are very pleased to be purchasing a new jaundice meter for RPA Newborn Care with these funds. Thank you to everyone in the team and to all their family and friends who supported them in this event.
The new humidicrib which we purchased early in 2012 is now in use in the unit. We are very happy that the efforts of the team and all of our supporters has resulted in a vital piece of equipment that will be used for many years to come.
We are also supporting RPA Newborn Care this year with the refurbishment of the Expressing Room. Many mothers would know of this room and we are very happy to be able to give it a facelift and make it a more welcoming place to be.
The remainder of 2012 sees us busy with market stalls. Selling a range of donated goods (both new and pre-loved) we hope to see you and one of these events. We are also launching “Little Wonder Playpals” a play group and support group for RPA Newborn Care families. More details will be available soon on the Facebook page.
If you would like to be involved in our projects or would like more information please visit us at facebook.com/LittleWonderRPA or email us at [email protected].
With warm wishes,
The Little Wonder team
Upcoming dates:
Baby & Kids Market, Five Dock Leisure Centre – Sunday 16th September 2012, 9am to 12pm
Baby & Kids Market, Sutherland Basketball Stadium – Sunday 4th November 2012, 9am to 12pm
Dahlia Brigham, Renee Holsman (Secretary, Little Wonder) and Dr Adrienne Gordon at Ladies Tea
Some of the wonderful guests with Little Wonder
member Leonie Kyriacou at the Ladies Tea
The Little Wonder team (from left) Narelle Vakalaros, Renee Holsman, Leonie Kyriacou, Jody Fitzgerald-Beddoes, Rebecca Morgan, Olivia Nixon, Sarah Sattout.
City to Surf team member Erin and team coordinator Renee Holsman
City to Surf team members
Lauren Taborda and Harry Irving
Contact UsAddress:
RPA Newborn CareRPA Women & BabiesRoyal Prince Alfred HospitalMissenden RdCamperdownNSW 2050Australia
I/We wish to make a contribution of:
$.......................................
By: c Credit Card c Cheque c Postal Order
• Please make cheques payable to “Friends of RPA Newborn Care”
• Or please circle as applicable.
MCARD VISA AMEX
Credit Card number:.………………..........……..…………
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• Or you can now call us on 1300 114 424 with your donation details.
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Receipts for direct monthly donations will be forwarded at the end of the financial year. Thank you for your continued support.
For further information please contact Dahlia on 9515 8456 or email [email protected]
I would like to be a regular supporter of RPA Newborn Care by making a monthly giftA regular monthly donation will provide reliable funding for life saving equipmentPlease deduct the following amount each month until further notice:c $10 c $20 c $50 c My chosen amount $...........(minimum$5)Preferred monthly debit date: c 8th c 30th Please charge my credit card:c Mastercard c Visa c Amex
