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CHARITY’S LIFELINE FOR CHILDREN WITH LUNG ILLNESS
Monday 30 November 2009
A leading medical charity has launched an £80,000 drive to provide Northern Ireland with its first dedicated respiratory centre for children with lung illnesses.
NI Chest, Heart and Stroke says the service - which is being set up by Professor Mike Shields at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children - will transform the assessment and treatment of breathing problems in young people. It will take referrals from every area of Northern Ireland.
Among the equipment being provided is the LifeShirt™, an American invention which until now has been available only on loan from its manufacturers. It enables doctors to monitor more than 30 vital life signs in youngsters suffering from serious respiratory problems, without admitting them to hospital.
Said Prof Shields: "The value of the LifeShirt is that it allows us to monitor children's health in great detail in their own homes. In the case of a child with sleep apnoea, which interrupts the breathing at night, we can see precisely how blood oxygen levels are being affected. Until now, the available monitoring equipment could only tell us if oxygen levels were dangerously low. We also found it difficult to distinguish between the two main types of sleep apnoea, which put us at risk of recommending the wrong treatment."
Templemore Amateur Swimming Club in east Belfast has kicked off the charity's appeal with £10,000 raised during a sponsored swimathon, but it needs to raise another £70,000.
NICHS Chief Executive Andrew Dougal said: "The need for respiratory assessments is increasing at a great rate, and this service is badly needed to improve children's lives. Sleep apnoea, for example, can result in poor performance at school, slow development and sometimes obesity. Yet there are children who remain undiagnosed. Another important aspect of the new respiratory service is that it will provide equipment to improve the assessment of children under the age of five, who need visual incentives to help doctors measure their lung function properly."
Other equipment will include a "body box" to measure lung volumes and specialist devices to assess oxygen transfer in children with conditions such as cystic fibrosis.
One person in seven in the UK suffers from lung illness. Asthma affects around seven children in the average school class.
