Donations to Newborn Care Centre at RNSH

Dear Steven

Please extend our thanks to all those involved in the �Kids Like Brett Campaign for your very generous donation to the Royal North Shore Hospital Newborn Care Centre of a:

Drager BabyLog 8000 plus Ventilator,
Respiratory Mechanics Computer, and
Fisher and Paykel CosyCot Resuscitaire.

The Royal North Shore Hospital Newborn Care Centre cares for around 400 babies each year from the Northern Sydney metropolitan region and other areas of New South Wales. It is the only intensive care unit for babies I the Northern Sydney metropolitan region and cares for babies who were born prematurely or who are unexpectedly sick following birth. Our smallest babies are born with birth weights of less than 1 kilogram and up to 16 weeks early. Amazingly these little patients can battle through up to 4 or 5 moth of intensive care and survive, often without any signs of having been born early.

Your wonderful donation will help us to provide the very best care to our small, fragile babies. The Drager Ventilator is a life support machine that allows us to take over breathing for babies who are too small or sick to breathe on their own. The sophisticated respiratory mechanics monitoring that this ventilator provides allows us to accurately determine the amount of help that our babies require. This enables us to provide a gentler form of respiratory support that helps to prevent damage to the extremely small, fragile lungs of these babies.

The Fisher and Paykel CosyCot Resuscitaire will be used for babies in our Delivery Suite at the time of their birth, as well as in our Newborn Care Centre. The Resuscitaire is used at the time of a baby�s birth to ensure they quickly and safely make the transition to life outside the womb. At times, equipment on the Resusitaire is used to bring back to life some babies who may otherwise have died without this life saving equipment and the expertise of doctors and nurses providing resuscitation. In the Newborn Care Centre, the Resuscitaire is used to provide a stable, warm environment for babies who require ongoing intensive care treatment. The Resuscitaire allows parents to maintain close contact with their baby whilst staff are providing the intensive care treatment necessary for the baby�s survival.

As you can see, the equipment that you have provided is truly life saving, and will play an enormous role in our care of babies in our Newborn Care Centre at RNSH over the years to come.

Thank you again for your support of the Royal North Shore Hospital Newborn Care Centre and for your very generous donations.

With kind regards and best wishes for a happy festive season.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Jennifer Bowen, Head, Department of Neonatology
Royal North Shore Hospital

27 Nov 2003