Help for three maternity hospitals in Ukraine

Premature births are a special category: they are very tiny and weak, and their body functions are still immature. A baby born weighing less than 1,500 grams faces problems with the respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, and nervous systems. Born prematurely before the 32nd week, babies born prematurely are not always able to take their first breath on their own.

The lives of these children depend entirely on modern medical equipment. And there is not enough state funding, and even in conditions of war, to supply all the necessary equipment to the nursing department for prematurely born children. The goal of this project is to help three hospitals that every day save the lives of Ukrainian children born prematurely and who are at risk.

The National Children's Specialist Hospital "Okhmatdet", namely the prematurely born babies' nursing department, needs a modern pulse oximeter. This is a modern diagnostic and monitoring medical device designed to measure hemoglobin saturation of arterial capillary blood with oxygen (saturation). The cardiovascular system and lungs of infants work continuously for one purpose – to saturate the arterial blood with oxygen. In premature infants there is a chronic lack of oxygen, in which this indicator requires constant monitoring and reliable data, the failure of which greatly complicates treatment and can cost lives. Each year, the Department of Prematurity Nursing treats more than 200 children who could not be treated in other medical facilities in the country. Currently, 14 children from different parts of Ukraine are in the department on a permanent basis.

Chernihiv maternity hospital, namely the intensive care department, requires two pulse oximeters and multiple saturation sensors.
Special sensors are indispensable in the process of nursing preterm infants, because due to the immaturity of the body, children often have disorders of these functions, up to and including respiratory and cardiac arrest. Monitoring (control) of these functions is possible with the help of pulse oximeters. Existing technology makes it possible to save the life and health of our youngest patients. The quality of medical care is determined by the efficiency and safety of all technologies. Since the beginning of the war, 411 children were born in the medical institution, 26 of them were in a serious condition and required long-term medical care and nursing. Now there are 5 children in the hospital for nursing.

Kryvyi Rih perinatal center, namely the department of intensive care for premature babies and postnatal nursing, requires an oxygen humidifier, saturation sensors, as well as a repair of automatic hematology analyser. The oxygen humidifier helps in the resuscitation of children and allows correct calculation and assistance to the child in the case of artificial pulmonary ventilation. The blood analyser, the only one in the department, is broken and needs to be repaired urgently, as a new one is expensive, and blood tests must be done without stopping. Since the beginning of the war 115 children have been treated in the medical institution. And these are children not only from Kryvyi Rih region, but also children from Kramatorsk, Severodonetsk and other towns from which their families had to flee. Now the hospital provides medical care to 9 prematurely born children.

By supporting this project, you are helping children from almost all over Ukraine!