Projects 2019 – Szent Rafael Hospital, Zalaegerszeg

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The Szent Rafael Hospital in Zalaegerszeg not only functions as a health-care institution for the 60,000 people who live in this town situated in the south-west of Hungary in Zala county. It is also the main hospital for the surrounding area, and accepts patients from throughout western Hungary, and even from across Hungary’s borders.

The reason for its extensive reach is the expertise that the doctors and nurses offer at Szent Rafael Hospital. They are able to treat certain patients that other hospitals cannot. This is one of the reasons why the Robert Burns International Foundation chose to continue supporting this Zala hospital, again as part of the SME Sponsorship Scheme in collaboration with FirstMed Center and CEO Dennis Diokno, following the success of the initial project in 2018.

This year, the hospital asked that we fund sensor kits for their ventilator machines, and looking at the photos, it was initially difficult to understand how something so small could be so expensive. But looks can be deceptive, as these kits play a very important role. When connected to a ventilator machine, they monitor the level of carbon dioxide coming from the patient.

“The quantity of carbon dioxide measured in the air exhaled by mechanically-ventilated children is an objective indicator – from a non-invasive procedure – of the effectiveness of the ventilation. We did not use to have such devices at our disposal”, said Dr László Gárdos, head of department.

Why is this important? Sudden changes in CO2 elimination usually imply a change in cardiorespiratory function, and can help in the early detection of respiratory events, such as hypoventilation, or signal that a breathing tube has become disconnected, even though this isn’t evident on the outside. It goes without saying that this contributes hugely to preventing potentially irreversible patient injury. The different sizes of sensor kit enable the doctors and nurses to use them for a wide range of paediatric needs.

“The capnography devices are instrumental in ensuring the successful ventilation of seriously ill children (in intensive care) and of new-borns in a critical condition (Perinatal Intensive Care Centre)”, added Dr. Gárdos.

Alongside Dr László Gárdos the RBIF was welcomed again by Dr Gabriella Halász, Director of the Hospital. They very much value the help that the guests of the Burns Supper give every year, as this is equipment that the hospital would otherwise have to do without, with the associated impact then on the standard of health care that they can provide, so a big thank you to all those who supported the Burns Supper in 2019! We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Szent Rafael Hospital in 2020.

 

Make sure you like the RBIF Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter to be sure of hearing all the details about all of our projects and events. You can also sign up to our mailing list here.

 

 

The Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) is supported by the British Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK. The Honorary President of the foundation is Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United football club. In the last 20 years the organisation has raised several hundred thousand euros to help sick and underprivileged children.

Contact: [email protected]

Projects 2019 – SOTE 2nd Dept. of Paediatrics, Budapest

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The Robert Burns International Foundation has donated equipment to the 2nd Department of Paediatrics at Semmelweis University in Tűzoltó utca every year since the Foundation was established in 1998.

We support other hospitals as well but why have we given continuous annual support to this hospital? The main reason is that the Tűzoltó utca hospital is the principal children’s hospital not just in Budapest but for the whole of Hungary. Children needing special treatment are often transferred here from other hospitals. So it has frequently made sense to help ensure this hospital has the equipment needed to offer the best available support for sick children in Hungary.

On  14 November  2019, Lesley Anne Füzes, Douglas Arnott, András Moldovan and David Thompson representing the Foundation visited the hospital to meet our medical advisor, Professor György Fekete, and senior members of the medical staff of the hospital, to discuss their future needs for equipment and also to see the 2 pieces of equipment purchased by the hospital in 2019 with funds donated by the Foundation.

We were given a demonstration of the EZ Gel Documentation System made by Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. This machine reads and analyses DNA samples taken from patients and produces images and reports. These enable medical staff to review the quality of samples before subjecting them to further analysis. This not only speeds up the analysis of samples but also improves efficiency and reduces cost and waste because samples which are weak can be discarded instead of being subjected to further expensive test processes (before this machine was purchased, there was no way to assess whether a particular sample might produce useful insights before incurring these extra costs).

Prof. György Fekete: the reagents for the later steps in the process are very costly, so it is much more economical to repeat the first, rather inexpensive step than have to repeat the entire sequence of examinations.

The second piece of equipment we saw is a mobile linear probe, an instrument which is used in conjunction with an ultrasound machine. This is a small unit, about the size of a hand microphone, which is easily portable and has extensive capabilities.

Prof. György Fekete: this equipment is mostly used in the Intensive Care unit of the hospital for quick ultrasounds of any child illness.

Its small size and weight make it easier to bring the probe to the child’s bedside (rather than require the child to leave its bed and go to be tested elsewhere) which aids efficiency. It also provides the child patient with a comparatively non-frightening, non-invasive experience as the probe is rolled over his or her stomach.

Make sure you like the RBIF Facebook page or follow us on Instagram or Twitter to be sure of hearing all the details about all of our projects and events. You can also sign up to our mailing list here.

 

 

The Robert Burns International Foundation (RBIF) is supported by the British Ambassador to Hungary and the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK. The Honorary President of the foundation is Sir Alex Ferguson, former manager of Manchester United football club. In the last 20 years the organisation has raised several hundred thousand euros to help sick and underprivileged children.

Contact: [email protected]