“Lighting the way, building community, empowering the NICU/Preterm Birth traveler”

What’s happening locally……………………

CHEERS! WEST COAST WE ARE RIPPING!!

NIFTY CUP!

Designed in Seattle, this $1 cup could save millions of babies….

The Seattle Times – Originally published May 23, 2016 at 1:54 pm Updated June 15, 2016

Inventors from PATH, the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s designed a feeding cup that could help prevent starvation in premature and high-risk babies in developing countries who have trouble breast-feeding. It will soon be widely distributed in Africa.-SOURCE- http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/designed-in-seattle-this-1-tool-could-save-millions-of-babies/

IN-PROCESS:

Seattle Children’s Research Institute Secures $3 million for Seattle-PAP Infant Breathing Support Invention

“April 30, 2014 – Seattle – Today,　Seattle Children’s Research Institute　announced the receipt of a three year, $3 million dollar grant from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation　to conduct two clinical trials of Seattle-PAP, an affordable device intended to provide breathing support to premature infants. The trials will begin later this spring in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest NICU in the U.S., and will confirm whether Seattle-PAP fosters similar or better outcomes than other infant breathing devices, as preclinical research suggests. If results are favorable, Seattle-PAP, which was developed in-house at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, is expected to be commercially available to healthcare providers around the world by 2017.

Developed by a team co-led by Seattle Children’s CEO　Tom Hansen, MD and Charles (Skip) Smith, PhD, Seattle-PAP is significantly cheaper to produce, operate, maintain, and repair than ventilators and other respiratory support devices typically used in U.S. healthcare facilities. These features make Seattle-PAP ideal for use in areas where access to healthcare resources may be limited. To operate the device, only relatively simple supplies are needed, including water, a continuous air supply, a breathing circuit tube, and a tube for the nose.”

“Worldwide, almost 1 million infants die each year from respiratory distress. Most of these deaths occur in resource-limited countries due to a lack of access to respiratory support devices commonly used in the developed world,” said Thomas Hansen, MD, CEO at Seattle Children’s. “Seattle-PAP may be a solution to this problem by making effective respiratory support accessible to newborns anywhere in the world.”

Please see the full article: http://www.texaschildrens.org/about-us/news/releases/seattle-childrens-research-institute-secures-3-million-seattle-pap-infant

Warriors!

We will be exploring TRAUMA as we view our Neonatal Womb Community at home and abroad….

What is Trauma?

1. A deeply distressing or disturbing experience:
   • emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis.
2. Physical injury.

KAT-Currently I am working at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA. as an office assistant in the Surgical Residency Department. Seeking a long-term career in surgery it is my pleasure to work alongside and learn from the amazing community members at Harborview Medical Center. At the trauma center of Harborview the sounds of sirens, helicopters, alarms, and codes are a familiar never-ending tune to an even greater symphony of staff and community members that orchestrate themselves on a daily basis to provide care to those whose lives change within an instant.

To me, trauma begins in an instant, often without warning as it deconstructs our reality and shakes us into a new world.

If you have been in the Neonatal ICU or received emergency preterm birth care trauma may be a part of your life story.

As a Neonatal ICU patient the majority of my care was focused on the trauma my tiny body endured each day as I fought, like many of my fellow preemie brothers and sisters, to live. I recognize my unanticipated birth and the loss of my twin brother Cruz was a horrific emotional shock to my family. In a past blog I shared that I received open heart surgery with no anesthia as a neonate. Though my body experienced harsh physical trauma I feel that the surgery may have been equally distressing to my surgeon, surgical and neonatal teams, and my family.

As members of the Neonatal Womb Family we have all have a relationship with trauma. We know what it means to will ourselves forward. I believe it is important for us as a community to acknowledge the trauma we have ALL encountered. Let us extend our deepest empathy and love to the families currently finding themselves in the traumatic experience of having a premature infant and the health-care providers that work within the environment of preterm birth associated trauma each day.

To my fellow NICU Grads/Premature Birth Survivors we have an important voice and role! We are valuable resources to our community! WE ARE SYMBOLS OF HOPE!