Thermal sensors that save the lives of premature born babies. 2

Every year around 500 000 babies are born in our country. 24 000 of them are born preterm. We call them Neterplyachki - because they so hurry to see this world, that they are born premature, preterm. If a qualified medical help is not provided, 70 % of these children may pass away. It is vitally important to control all the life indicators of the baby because an in-time help is a pledge of saving the baby's life.

In case of the immaturity of the vital body systems of Neterpliachki's (for example if a baby cannot breathe on its own), it gets to the department of children's intensive care. Here babies stay in special incubators, covered with black cloth, with four openings - two on each side - for medical manipulations. All incubators are supplied with the artificial lung's ventilation apparatuses. A baby with the same extremely low body temperature, starting from birth, requires special attention to the surrounding temperature. The baby's yet unformed organism still cannot keep the necessary temperature of the body and thus spends all the energy for that. The stress of cold leads to changes in the physiological processes, which increases the risk of illness or makes more difficult to heal. Maintaining normal thermal regime is a critical moment in the nursing of premature infants with very low birth weight. Even the most simple procedures such as monitoring vital functions, transport or changing a diaper for the child is associated with the risk of heat loss.

In order to protect our young wards, doctors use all possible ways: incubators, nests, further harboring the child inside the incubator, as well as heat sources of radiant heat. To control the body temperature of the prematurely born children, special sensors are used. These sensors are attached to the body of the child and provide the possibility to constantly control the temperature changes, which is vital since premature born children's bodies cannot supporters their body's temperature on their own. Such kids can get too cold or hot without visible causes, while the sensor provides a possibility to control and react right away, thus save the baby's life or escape complications and consequences.

It is the sources of the radiant heat that newborns from the department of intensive therapy of Khmel'nickiy regional center. At the moment there is a faulty heating element of one of the resuscitation tables. The goal of our project is to purchase of such sensors of the hospital, where they save such babies every day.