A level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of the very few in the country has been opened at Reddington Hospital. The multi-million naira facility was set up following investment, and provision of funds by the Bank of Industry(BoI) and Access Bank of Nigeria, this, NewswatchNigeria has gathered.
The NICU at Reddington is a 6 bed facility with state of the art equipment like the Giraffe incubators and Infant Resuscitator, highly sophisticated ventilators, capable of ventilating preterm babies weighing as low as 500gm (about the weight of an apple) infusion pumps to deliver pre-set fluid rates, syringe drivers, arterial blood gas measurement, phototherapy for babies with jaundice.
NewswatchNigeria confirmed that the facility also include a Transport Incubator Ambulance System, which can be used to transport a new born preterm baby from one of the multi-specialist hospital to the other.
The aim for creating the baby centered healthcare facility was to offer and provide quality healthcare to neonates including preterm babies, this NewswatchNigeria learnt.
A neonate is a baby aged between 1 and 28 days. An Intensive Care Unit is a unit where critically ill patients are treated at a more intensive level than is needed by other patients.
A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is a facility for the care of critically ill babies including prematures.
The Intensive care unit at Reddington is managed by experienced Consultant Neonatologists/Paediatricians. They are Dr Olajide Ojo, the Head of the Department of Paediatrics, with 15-year experience in the care of premature babies and older children.
The other Consultant is Dr Raj Kishore, who has his Fellowship in Neonatology with relevant experience caring for over 700 babies both in Africa and India.
The two doctors are supported by a team of trained nurses specialized in Neonatal Intensive care amongst other support staff providing a 24-hour coverage for the unit. These are to further improve the outcome of the care of these babies
The doctors confirmed that “using our Transport Incubator Ambulance, we evacuated a premature baby girl delivered at 25 weeks’ gestation (just about 6-month old pregnancy) with birth weight of 800gm, from another hospital in Lagos within a few hours of delivery.
“For ease of comparison, an average normal new-born baby weighs about 3kg, meaning this baby was about a quarter of the weight of a new-born. While there are always huge challenges in the in management of these prematures anywhere in the world especially those at 25 weeks of gestation, however our team rose to the task successfully dealing with various complications and challenges that came up throughout her 65 days stay in hospital.”
Dr. Kishore further confirmed that “We are happy to inform you that the baby having progressively improved, gaining tremendous weight while on admission has now been discharged home to the delight of her parents.”
He further explained that “Reddington Hospital recently committed the required resources in terms of manpower and technology for the purpose of caring of the new-borne especially preterm babies for better outcome.
“While there is need to stem and reverse the trend of medical tourism abroad, it is extremely important that potential parents and medical practitioners are aware of such facilities available locally, especially when time is of great essence.
“We are exploring collaborating with other hospitals, both public and private, to train and develop human capacity in ensuring that skilled medical personnel are in attendance at labour and deliveries. This will definitely go a long way in improving patient outcomes.”
