Andrew's wish list - University Hospital Southampton NHS ...

Kaleb’s
a cool
customer
After making a traumatic entrance into the
world, baby Kaleb was given time to chill out.
The tot was among the first babies
at Princess Anne Hospital to receive
a new hi-tech cooling treatment to
prevent brain damage.
As a SUHT employee, Larelle
Jauncey, 19, from Shirley in
Southampton, knows the Princess
Anne better than most first-time
mums – but she didn’t expect to
spend so much time there after giving
birth to Kaleb.
She said: “My pregnancy had been
fine, but I was nearly two weeks
overdue, so I came to Princess Anne
Hospital to be induced.
“Everything seemed to be going
OK, but then there were problems
with Kaleb’s blood pressure and I
had a very high temperature. As
soon as he was born they took him
away and started working on him,
then he was taken to neonatal
intensive care.”
The first 48 hours of Kaleb’s life
were critical and, at one point, he
stopped breathing. Larelle and her
boyfriend, Luke Wheeler, were
warned they might want to consider
getting their baby son christened in
hospital, in case he did not survive.
Doctors then decided to use a
new treatment to cool Kaleb’s body
temperature in a bid to prevent any
brain damage that may have been
caused when he was born.
Kaleb was attached to a cold
body wrap and connected to a
hi-tech cooling machine, which was
“
The first 48 hours of Kaleb’s life were critical
and, at one point, he stopped breathing
used to drop his body temperature
from the normal 37° to 33.5°. This
hypothermia was maintained for
around 72 hours before he was
gradually warmed back to normal.
Consultants Dr Robert Ironton
and Dr Vijay Baral lead the new
cooling treatment, which has been
introduced following recent studies
that suggest cooling a baby limits the
severity of any brain injury.
If the blood supply between a
mother and baby becomes obstructed
or cut – known as perinatal asphyxia
– the baby can become severely
deprived of oxygen.
MediaMonitor
This lack of oxygen sets off an
inflammatory response in the brain
cells that can lead to serious illness,
or, in some cases, prove fatal.
It is believed that cooling the body
of an at-risk baby within six hours
of birth, in addition to standard
intensive care treatment, gives the
brain time to recover by limiting
inflammation and slowing the body’s
energy needs.
Dr Baral said: “Baby cooling is
standard practice in many larger
hospitals across the world and we
are delighted to now be able to
provide this new service for babies in
Southampton.”
MediaMonitor
Larelle’s mum, Martina Jauncey,
said: “It was a very difficult time for
both families while Kaleb was in
hospital, but the nurses were very
good to us all.
“Everyone was surprised how well
Kaleb did and how quickly he got
better.”
Kaleb is now a happy, healthy
baby, with no signs of his dramatic
start in life, but will be regularly
monitored for the first few years
of his life.
For more information visit
www.suht.nhs.uk and search
for ‘neonatal’
SUHT’s new baby-cooling treatment has featured in the News of the World and the
Nursing Times, as well as on ITV Meridian.
Volunteer interpreters
Agnieszka Burtt is an admin support assistant – but over the past year has
helped many women and families during their pregnancies and births.
Based at the Princess Anne Hospital,
she is one of 61 members of staff
at SUHT who have trained to be
volunteer interpreters.
Nearly six years ago, Agnieszka
moved to Southampton from Poland,
where she had been an English teacher.
Since completing her training course
in December 2008, Agnieszka has
helped patients at appointments, births
and over the phone.
She said: “Even if families have been
in the UK a long time and speak good
English, medical vocabulary can cause
problems. Sometimes I only need to
interpret a few words to help women
understand procedures.
“I am very pleased that I can help
our Polish patients. It can be a worrying
and stressful time, especially if you don’t
understand everything you are being
told. I can help to explain everything and
reassure them.”
Using trained staff volunteers means
clinicians can access interpreters very
quickly. This is important in emergency
situations, as volunteers are already on
site, so doctors do not have to wait for an
external translator to travel to the hospital.
The in-house service provides crucial
help for patients for whom English is not
their first language.
Often, these patients are anxious and
confused, so just a few words from one
of the interpreters can help put them at
ease – enabling clinical staff to treat the
patient more effectively.
As well as being cheaper than
external companies, saving the Trust
money, the in-house interpretation
service offers a more personal approach,
providing face-to-face help rather than
being a voice on the end of the phone.
The Trust’s volunteer interpreters are in
big demand and more recruits are needed
to help out with interpretation work.
If you are a member of staff who is
fluent in another language and would like
to find out more about training to become
a volunteer interpreter, contact voluntary
services manager Kim Sutton on ext 6062.
• SUHT currently has 866
volunteers, including 66
interpreter volunteers
• Between them, they speak
41 languages
• Languages range from Arabic
to Urdu and everything in
between
• The number of call-outs for
SUHT’s in-house interpreter
service rose from 254 in 2005
to 554 in 2009.81% to 84%
Foundation
Trust update
The hospital’s board of directors
has decided to postpone our bid to
become a foundation trust.
As you will have read in previous
issues of Connect, the application
had been proceeding well and the
Trust was in a strong position to be
authorised from February 1.
However the financial situation
that developed in the local health
economy made it impossible for the
board to be confident that we could
manage some of the risks associated
with being a foundation trust.
The application will now be
resumed once the hospital and its
commissioners can agree plans that
will bring affordable volumes of
work to the hospital - probably not
for at least 12 months.
The Trust remains in healthy
financial balance and there is strong
support for the continued growth of
our world-class specialist services.
CONNECT
ISSUE 24 3