Wed. June 17, 2015
Last Wednesday, the Children’s Medical Foundation received an opportunity to visit a hospital and tour its facilities. During our visit, not only were we able to converse with the trainees from the NCU project sites at Pu’er, Dali, and Yunnan over lunch, we were also able to stop by the NICU, PICU, and the ambulance transport center. In addition, Mr. Wei, one of the doctors, gave us an extremely informative and detailed tour of the hospital. Overall, it was great to see all of our efforts on CMF’s sponsored programs translate into this much success.
The facilities at Guangzhou’s Women and Children’s Medical Center are far and above what the trainees from Pu’er and Dali are used to; Over lunch, a nurse from Dali casually joked about spending her first week there trying to figure out which buttons to press on the machines. Later during the day, Dr. Wei brought us through a fully-packed ward, and introduced us to several patients; electrodes clung to one baby’s head through a white mesh hat, and we learned that the baby was attached to a High Frequency Oscillator.The HFO is a machine that helps facilitate the baby’s blood- oxygen levels to reach a stable rate without causing hemorrhaging in the lungs.
The second baby we were introduced to had just undergone a four hour blood transfusion.The baby had sepsis, which is a fatal blood condition that requires a significant replacement of their blood. Another baby wore a white- mesh hat connected to electrodes, which monitors the baby’s brain activity and compares it to the brain activity of a healthy neonate. It was hard to see a baby in an incubator fitted out with 2 square meters of equipment that was vital for it’s survival.
At the end of the trip, I came back with a larger sense of CMF’s direction, as well as its accomplishments. We have grown to have immense respect for everyone involved with this organization, as they are allowing people to have a second chance at life.
— Sarah, Lauren, Lauren S
