Cooling unit proves critical to newborns’ brain health

Newborn babies deprived of oxygen at birth can now be treated with a cooling device while they are in transport to Foothills Medical Centre.

The new appliance is light enough for mounting on a transportation incubator while the baby is taken to the hospital by ground or air ambulance. It incorporates a blanket filled with water, which is recycled through the machine, and monitors the core temperature of the baby.

Dr. Khorshid Mohammad, neonatal neuro-critical care project lead, said about 500 babies in Alberta each year are at risk of asphyxia, or lack of oxygen at the time of delivery.

Because Calgary is the referral centre for southern Alberta, it receives 35 to 40 babies eligible for cooling treatment.

About 65 per cent of babies are born outside facilities that have neonatal intensive care units.

Mohammad said doctors have a critical six-hour window of opportunity after birth to provide therapeutic hypothermia to decrease brain injury and mortality in babies suffering from asphyxia.

“We thought that this machine will help in getting to the target temperature faster and keeping it within the target more efficiently,” said Mohammad.

Foothills is one of the first care facilities in the country, and the first in Western Canada, to buy the $35,000 cooling device.

It was funded, along with the new neuro-critical care program, through community donations to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The ability to offer the treatment while in transport will allow a seamless transition for the infants to one of the cooling devices at the hospital. “Although we say we have a six-hour window of opportunity, we know from the evidence the earlier you get to them the better the chance of protection, and the quicker you get to the target temperature, the better the chance of protection,” said Mohammad.

“So I think this will make a difference in the babies that are born and suffering from asphyxia.”

In fact, Mohammad said doctors have seen through their neo-natal follow-up clinic that cooling made “a huge difference” in the outcome of infants who were deprived of oxygen at birth, in terms of cognitive outcome and quality of life.

“The quality of life is remarkable when they receive cooling — it’s much better,” he said.

We know from the evidence the earlier you get to them the better the chance of protection ...

GAVIN YOUNG One year-old Tegan de Vries, with her parents Katie Kaminski and Curtis de Vries and neonatologist Dr. Khorshid Mohammad at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, was helped by a portable transportation cooling device when she was born having difficulty...