Preterm infants need help

After birth, babies should breathe continuously to receive oxygen. In premature infants, the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) that control breathing is not sufficiently developed to provide continuous breathing. This causes a violation of the rhythm of breathing. From time to time, rapid breathing gives way to periods of shallow breathing or stopping it.

In the diagnosis of apnea, preterm infants (especially those born less than 34 weeks of gestation) will receive medical care most of the time in the intensive care unit of newborns. Many of these children will not do without hardware help in breathing because their lungs are very immature to allow babies to breathe on their own.

Artificial ventilation is one of the most invasive methods of treating prematurity. Apparatuses of ventilation are very complex (sometimes computer) systems and doctors change the parameters of their work every day, and sometimes every hour, depending on the state of the child. You can change the concentration of oxygen in the inspired mixture from 21% to 100%, you can change the frequency and duration of the breaths, you can change the degree of inflation of the lungs and many, many different parameters.

Modern ventilator devices are able to adapt to the independent breathing of a child and only to help him. Gradually, as recovery and growth, the child begins to breathe himself and the apparatus becomes unnecessary. Then the child is extubated (remove the tubule from the trachea) and transferred to a non-invasive artificial ventilation (or if the child manages to cope) is left on independent breathing. To warm the water in the humidifier chamber, as well as the gas coming from the ventilator, use moistening flasks to ensure optimum humidity and temperature in the breathing circuit, which, unfortunately, must be replaced, because they have their validity.

The purpose of our project is to purchase 3 flasks for humidification in the IVL apparatus in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Perinatal Center, where pregnant women with a high degree of perinatal risk give birth, where a high percentage of children with small and very small body weight is born. The material and technical base of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is not sufficient to provide assistance to newborns and to purchase the necessary supplies for devices that work almost continuously.

Let's help doctors save lives and successfully nursing sick newborns for their further full development and life!