Let infants survive

Children are most precious treasure in their parents’ lives. But sometimes the joy of expecting a baby is suddenly interrupted by a preterm arrival of the baby into this world or delivery complications. These babies come through a long process of nursing in an intensive care unit. The treatment of infants is very expensive all over the world. In this country, regardless of all the state programs, it’s parents who bare most costs for treatment of these babies…

About 300 babies are nursed annually in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Rivne Regional Pediatric Hospital. It’s hard. And it’s expensive. Both, for the state and for the parents. On a world scale, it’s little, on a country scale, it’s little as well. But taken on the scale of one family, of one mother – it’s much. It’s all the best a person can have. It’s happiness. It’s a baby’s first smile, their first step, first word. The horrifying phrase “intensive care” gradually vanishes from the memory. But the mother’s gratitude and happiness stays. And it’s not important who these children are going to be and what they are going to do when they grow up. The most important is they will survive.

Doctors are often asked: is it worth it? It is! The one who has seen the baby dying, and then sees them starting crying, starting sucking, starting displaying their temperament – they know it’s worth it! The one who has seen the eyes of the mother who presses her baby against her chest for the first time in 4 months since the baby was born – they know it’s worth it! The one who has seen their patients at 3-4 years of age being no different from their peers born healthy – they are sure it’s worth it!

The Intensive Care Unit is equipped with machines that allow nursing even very preterm babies, conducting a long-term mechanical ventilation of lungs and constant monitoring of crucial functions. But unfortunately, any equipment eventually breaks down, and needs regular service and renovation. At the moment, the Intensive Care Unit desperately needs to have its equipment repaired, namely, to fit temperature sensors for the lung ventilator and cables for the pulse oximeter. These accessories will allow providing oxygen of adequate temperature and controlling baby’s blood oxygen saturation. It’s nearly impossible to provide care to the infants without quality and properly functioning equipment. And this cannot be achieved without help from all of us.