The child was threatened by hypoxemia. “In a small percentage of cases, a newborn may have a postpartum situation where the pressure in the blood vessels does not drop after birth, the pressure may even rise and a serious condition called hypoxemia, or decreased blood oxygen concentration,” said the head of the Department of Neonatology. FNO Hana Wiedermannová.
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The treatment of this condition is very demanding, and if all available methods fail, neonatologists call the ECMO team from the Department of Pediatrics and Inherited Metabolic Disorders of the General University Hospital in Prague.
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According to the head doctor of the Department of Pediatrics and Inherited Metabolic Disorders, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague, Václav Vobruba, it is necessary to connect the child to extracorporeal circulation in the hospital where he is currently located. The assistance of a pediatric cardiac surgeon is also required.
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“Usually, the child is in critical circulatory and respiratory failure, when all conventional methods have failed and are unable to provide oxygenation. For these reasons, he is given extracorporeal support, “Vobruba explained, adding that the newborn is able to manage a trip to Prague with a specially equipped ambulance after connecting to ECMO.
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Fifteen hits a year is not enough
“We are currently cooperating with the Czech Army, which will never leave us in the lurch,” said Tomáš Grus, head of the 2nd Surgical Clinic of Cardiovascular Surgery of the General University Hospital, adding that the army is able to organize air transport of the team to more distant places in a very short time. significantly speed up the help of the child.
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“Unfortunately, for the time being, the child travels by ambulance in a special incubator along the highway, but we are negotiating so that we can also take the children by air, because it is clearly more gentle and faster.”
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The ECMO team intervenes about fifteen times a year, but according to Mayor Grus, there are twice as many cases in the Czech Republic when their help is needed. “Unfortunately, we are missing the rest. Even though we have been doing this for such a long time, despite all the enlightenment, the workplaces do not contact us or, in the worst case, they do not know about us. He tries to treat it conventionally, but it doesn’t always turn out well, “he pointed out.
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