Life-saving phototherapy for newborns

The intensive and post-intensive care units for newborns are the heart of maternity hospitals and perinatal centers, because it is in these units that the smallest and weakest newborns, born with a body weight of 500 g or less, with congenital malformations, genetic pathologies, and babies born after complicated pregnancies and deliveries. Usually, a large proportion of these tiny babies suffer from jaundice of various origins. This disease is accompanied by an increase in the level of bilirubin in the blood, which accumulates in the small body, negatively affects the functioning of organs and can lead to motor disorders, cerebral palsy, encephalopathy, and other serious diagnoses.

In premature babies, due to incomplete maturity, the liver cannot cope with the insidious bilirubin on its own. In such cases, light therapy – a modern and painless method of neutralizing dangerous bilirubin and allowing it to be quickly excreted from the body through urine and bile – becomes the salvation from jaundice for these patients. Thanks to the use of modern phototherapy lamps, the number of infants with jaundice who still require blood transfusions has been reduced by more than 90%. Imagine how painful and difficult this procedure is for a baby weighing less than one kilogram!

The perinatal center, which has been operating as part of the Khmelnytskyi Regional Hospital since 2012 and handles almost all premature births in the region, is in dire need of our help in purchasing two or three of these miracle lamps. The neonatal departments of the facility provide care to an average of nearly 350 newborns per year, most of whom are diagnosed with jaundice of varying degrees of severity. Just a few sessions of phototherapy will help beat this disease and save babies from traumatic blood transfusions and serious neurological complications in the future, and we can help them grow up healthy and have a full and happy childhood.

Join us in this good cause!