Spotlight Autumn/Winter 2023

Why we need your help...
As you know at LHCH we are a specialist centre for the treatment
of heart disease. Treatments can range from cardiac imaging and
diagnostics to emergency care following a heart attack.
For those who require surgery we have 15 surgeons who provide a
24-hour, 7 day a week service for both planned and emergency
procedures. Over 2,000 of the patients who have heart operations
with us will require post-operative intensive care because they are
designated as high-risk. This could be because of the nature of
their procedure, their age or the fact that they have other existing
health issues.
The monitoring of these patients is absolutely essential to ensure
they make a good recovery. Often this means that they are
connected to a wide range of monitoring machines including heart
monitors, artificial ventilators, and instruments to measure fluids
and blood gases. However, even with all this monitoring equipment
it can be difficult to identify what the cause is when patients are
not recovering as they should.
At the present time if a patient
is in this position, they will
require a further invasive
procedure known as
pulmonary artery
catheterisation.
LHCH has recently trialled a new, state of the art system of
minimally invasive monitoring which attaches to the existing radial
artery line inserted during the initial surgery. Thanks to this system
medical teams are able to have early warnings of potential problems
such as detection of sepsis and shock, low blood pressure or unstable
blood pressure which can lead to stroke.
The benefits don’t just stop at early detection however it ensures
that the patient is receiving the correct amount of fluids and drugs,
providing an individual regime of care for each patient. It significantly
reduces the risk of post-operative complications such as stroke or
kidney injury. It leads to a shorter recovery time meaning that
patients spend less time in Intensive Care reducing the risk of
delirium and it's more cost-effective as it reduces the need for
further major treatment.
LHCH Charity wants to ensure that every
patient that needs it will have access to this
monitoring system so we are launching a
campaign to raise the funds to purchase
six of these machines, one of each of the
intensive care beds set aside for high-risk
cardiac patients.
The cost of each machine is £25,000 so we
are asking you to give whatever you can to
help us make those most at risk following
heart surgery have a faster and safer recovery.
This is not without risk to
a patient who is already
very poorly but there is a
way that this problem can
be addressed without the
need for further surgery.
20 - Spotlight Autumn/Winter 2023
Spotlight Autumn/Winter 2023- 21