Reddington Multi-specialist  Hosiptal has recently unveiled a level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to boost the survival rates of preterm babies. The Head of the Paediatric Unit at the hospital, Dr Olajide Ojo, said this during a briefing held to announce how the hospital took delivery of a 25-week-old baby and reunited her with her family after 65 days.

 

Ojo, who is a consultant paediatrician and neonatologist, said, “Recently, using our Transport Incubator Ambulance, we evacuated a premature baby girl delivered at 25 weeks’ gestation( about six months) with a birth weight of 800gm, from another hospital in Lagos, within a few hours of delivery.

 

“For ease of comparison, an average and normal new-born baby weighs about three kilogrammes, meaning this baby was about a quarter of the weight of a new-born. “While there are always huge challenges in the management of these premature babies anywhere in the world, especially those at 25 weeks’ gestation, however, our team rose to the task and successfully dealt with various complications and challenges that came up throughout the baby’s 65 days stay in hospital.”

 

Ojo noted that the hospital committed the resources in terms of manpower and technology to care for the new-born, especially preterm babies, for a better outcome. “While there is a need to stem and reverse the tide 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.

 

“It is a known fact that Nigeria’s health indicators are poor and while the government can do so much, there is a need for the private sector to contribute and support what the government can provide. This was one of the reasons Reddington Multi-specialist Hospital took that step, not only to blaze the trail and change the narrative in the care of the newborn space, but also to set a better standard of care for this vulnerable age group,” Ojo said.

 

The consultant paediatrician said the hospital had been exploring a partnership with other hospitals for the purpose of training and developing human capacity, as well as to ensure that skilled medical personnel are in attendance during labour and child delivery.

 

Another consultant paediatrician at the hospital, Dr Raj Kishore, said, “A neonate is a baby aged between one and 28 days. An Intensive Care Unit is where critically ill patients are treated at a more intensive level than is needed by other patients. Hence, the facility will care for critically ill babies including premature babies.

 

“The NICU at Reddington is a six-bed facility with equipment like the Giraffe incubators and Infant Resuscitaires, 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. We also have a Transport Incubator Ambulance System, which can be used to transport a preterm baby from anywhere in Lagos to our facility in Victoria Island.”

 

According to UNICEF, in 2017, about one million babies across the globe died on the day they were born and 2.5 million in just their first month of life.

 

“In Nigeria, each year about 262,000 babies died at birth, the world’s second-highest national total, while every day in Nigeria, 257 babies die within their first month of life.”