INTENSIVE CARE

News
Fall 2016
Mercury Medical Expands Team
Mercury Enterprises has announced that John Gargaro MD has
joined the Corporate Board of Directors and Douglas Smith has
joined the company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Dr.
Gargaro is currently a board certified orthopedic surgeon and
graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan
Medical School. He is currently Chief of the Department of
Orthopedic Surgery at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, former
Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and former
Treasurer of the Medical staff at St Joseph Hospital, Denver CO.
Industry experience includes consulting positions with Wright
Medical and Johnson & Johnson/DePuy, as well as clinical
research and speaker panel positions for Sanofi-Synthelabo Inc.
and Organon Labs.
Douglas Smith’s background includes 20+ years of sales and
marketing experience with GE Healthcare, Dräger, Maquet
Medical Systems USA and Siemens Medical Solutions USA,
Inc. Mercury Medical, a veteran-owned medical products
manufacturing and marketing organization, focused on airway
management and anesthesia, is recognized by the industry as a
leading provider of innovative airway management devices.
Neonatal Resuscitation Protocols
The Helping Babies Breathe neonatal resuscitation protocol
significantly reduces early neonatal deaths, according to a
study from Nepal. The quality improvement approach includes
identifying the barriers for health workers to adhere to neonatal
resuscitation, developing an improvement plan to address the
barriers as well as formation of quality improvement teams. Over
a million babies worldwide die every year within a day of life, the
vast majority due to birth-related complications. Resuscitation
initiated within the first “golden” minute reduces deaths by 30%,
the researchers explain in their paper. To improve neonatal
outcomes, the simplified resuscitation protocol has been in place
in many resource-poor settings. This involves keeping the baby
warm, suctioning the airways, and bag and mask ventilation
within the first minute, if required. Despite this, over a third of
neonatal deaths in Nepal were due to intrapartum causes, casting
doubts about appropriate use of the protocol. Their prospective
cohort study evaluated the impact of a quality improvement
cycle (QIC) at the tertiary care Paropakar Maternity and
Women’s Hospital with over 22,000 babies delivered every year.
The QIC was designed and planned from July to December 2012
and implemented from January to September 2013. Perinatal
mortality, antepartum and intrapartum stillbirths, and first-day
neonatal deaths during the two periods were compared. The QIC
included a two-day training of all involved, daily bag-and-mask
practice on mannequins, self-evaluation after each delivery,
peer reviews after every resuscitation and refresher courses.
The hospital recorded 9,588 and 15,520 deliveries during the
baseline and intervention periods, respectively. Prior to the
intervention, the perinatal mortality, intrapartum stillbirths, and
first-day neonatal deaths were 30.9, 9.0, and 5.2 per 1,000 births,
respectively. The corresponding figures during the intervention
period declined to 23.3, 3.2, and 1.9, respectively (p