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Humpty helps with treatment of sick kids in rural areas
15 April 2008 When children are very ill and their small bodies are close to collapse, resuscitation is often extremely difficult with conventional treatments and technologies. This fact prompted Hunter New England Health Paediatric Outreach Clinical Nurse Consultant working in the northern part of the Area, Helen Stevens, to seek sponsorship from the Humpty Dumpty Foundation to help purchase potentially lifesaving equipment for each of the 18 hospitals in the northern region. Mrs Stevens said the EZ-IO intraosseous device is essentially a drill with a needle attached, which allows trained medical and nursing staff to administer resuscitative fluids and medications directly, safely and easily. "All of our rural hospitals treat children in emergencies. Many of these facilities don’t have on-site doctors and rely on GPs to come to the emergency department to treat very sick or injured children waiting to be transferred to a specialised paediatric ward in a larger hospital," Mrs Stevens said. "This device, in my experience, is much easier to use than conventional methods of injecting fluids and medications in an emergency. It is highly effective and can be delivered in a timely way by local staff. "The device really does have the capacity to save children’s lives," she said. Mrs Stevens said the Humpty Dumpty Foundation has been holding regular charity functions to raise money to help equip children’s wards for the past 12 years, recently expanding to include rural hospitals as well as those in metropolitan areas. "The Foundation’s Saturday Night Fever Ball, held last year, highlighted our request for the EZ-IO device. The Foundation told me that many people were very excited to be able to support our request. We now have 18 of these devices for our northern hospitals - from Tamworth in the south, Wee Waa in the west up to Moree and to Tenterfield in the north – are about to start rolling out training in how to use their new EZ-IO*," she said. Health insurance giant, HCF is one such group donating four EZ-IO devices through Humpty Dumpty Children’s Charity, which will be located in Emergency Departments at Armidale, Walcha, Guyra and Tamworth. Mrs Stevens said on behalf of each of these hospitals, she thanks HCF and the Humpty Dumpty Foundation for their generous community spirit. She said each EZ-IO is valued at $1345 but can be worth its weight in gold when needed in an emergency. * The roll-out of training for doctors and emergency nursing staff in the use of the EZ-IO device is now underway, with presentations being made by HCF to Emergency Departments at Tamworth 2pm TODAY, and on Wednesday 16 April at Guyra 12noon, Armidale 1pm, and Walcha 2.30pm
Contact: Kay Cope
Phone: 6776 9817
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