Our Happy Little Hearts Appeal has succeeded in raising £22,000 towards a second incubator for Royal Brompton’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

The hard work and generosity of all our fundraisers and donors have meant that we were able to contribute towards a much needed second incubator for the department. 

Incubators like this are used to care for premature babies who need intervention for their patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). In most cases, shortly after a baby is born, a blood vessel that connects the two main arteries of the heart should close but when this fails to close, medical intervention is required. This is especially common in premature babies.

Royal Brompton is the only hospital in the country that treats babies with PDA using catherisation as opposed to the surgical alternative. Now that the hospital has two incubators, it means that they can treat more babies with a less invasive procedure instead of sending them to other hospitals to have invasive surgery. Last Friday, for the first time our doctors could perform two procedures in one day with the help of the second incubator.

Claire Buckle, Matron for PICU says, “We are so grateful to the Charity for our incubator. We are the only centre in the UK that does PDA device closures via cardiac catheterisation on such premature babies and having a second incubator means that we can admit more than one premature baby at a time. Professor Fraisse and Dr Bautista are therefore able to carry out this minimally invasive and innovative procedure on more babies.”

We’d like to say a final thank you to everyone who has supported this appeal!