Don’t expect black and white bears when the Sturgeon Community Hospital acquires its new Panda transport warmer unit. You can expect happier babies, however. The Panda is an important facet of newborn care at the facility.
“It’s an open isolate used for the initial resuscitation and stabilization of newborns following delivery,” explained Katrina Black, the executive director of the Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation. “It provides heat, portable oxygen, suction and easy access (for medical staff).”
The hospital is set to acquire the unit thanks to a St. Albert Community Foundation grant of $6,136. The grant came from the Thatcher Neonatal Care Fund, a resource that the hospital’s foundation has accessed in the past.
It also provided $4,700 in funding to the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, enabling it to purchase two programmable breast pumps for that facility’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.
Last year the Sturgeon Hospital received $10,000 from the fund to acquire two transport units. Births have been on a steady incline at the facility as it serves a wide territory that includes north Edmonton, Sturgeon County and Parkland County. It now handles approximately 2,650 deliveries annually. That’s about eight a day, Black said.
Every one of those babies needs a warmer, but it’s the premature babies who stand to benefit the most. The Panda units are essential to stabilize and resuscitate those neonates until they are transported to the NICU at the Royal Alexandra Hospital or the University of Alberta Hospital.
“It’s a very, very important piece of equipment. We have more and more patients that are presenting here that are not at full term, and they’re delivering. We need the [Panda]. There’s just a great need.”
“We’re very, very appreciative of [the support],” she stated.
In response, Kent Davidson, president of the board of the community foundation, offered his gratitude that his organization can be there to help.
“We have a number of applications every year for our funds and we need to reflect on how we can distribute what resources we have amongst the community in the most effective way. We try to serve a range of charities when we do that. I thought this year we had a pretty broad range of assistance. We just feel really good about that. We’re just glad to be a part of the community’s philanthropic character.”
