Earlier today, Dr Soma Pujari Co-founder of the Kusuma Trust officially opened the new Kusuma Trust Special Care Baby Unit at St Bernard’s Hospital. The unit has been funded by the Kusuma Trust.

The new unit includes:

1. Cooling device
2. Cerebral Function Monitor,
3. Incubator
4. Warmer
5. Video laryngoscopes x 2
6. Baby Paul – Smart Baby Simulator
7. Mechanical Ventilator

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is one of the leading causes of infant death. There is now substantial evidence that induced hypothermia (cooling) of newborn babies who may have suffered from a lack of oxygen at birth reduces death or disability, without increasing disability in survivors.

The Kusuma Trust very generously donated the appropriate equipment to conduct the cooling technique and in November last year the GHA undertook their first active cooling in a newborn critically sick baby in Gibraltar. Previously, these newborns would have to be transferred to the nearest Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which was approximately 1.5-2 hours away from Gibraltar.

The GHA Director General, Prof Patrick Geoghegan, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to officially open the brand new Kusuma Trust Special Care Baby Unit at the St Bernard’s Hospital. This is part of the GHA’s ongoing plan to repatriate as many services as possible to Gibraltar, thereby increasing the patient experience. I am particularly grateful to the Kusuma Trust for their very generous donation which has been fundamental in making this project a reality.”