Company Representatives from Design Revolution (DRev) Brilliance Phototherapy Units, Andrew and Laurie Skipper, are currently in Guyana conducting surveillance activities to determine the scope of future backing to the local health sector.
According to a release from the Ministry of Public Health, the Skippers toured the Paediatric and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the West Demerara Hospital. DRev’s phototherapy machines are used to treat jaundice in new-born babies.
For last week, the Region Three hospital treated seven babies born with jaundice, Dr Cindi Marks confirmed.
Babies born pre-maturely are most vulnerable to the ailment with signs including a yellowing of the eyes, skin, mouth and tongue or looking “extremely paly,” the release quoted Marks as explaining.
Others contract jaundice through “poor feeding” which Marks explained is caused by the reluctance among some mothers to breastfeed their new-borns or the difficulty experienced by some mothers to produce breast milk.
Nevertheless, “there is no need for alarm, the babies are responding well to the (phototherapy) treatment,” the release quoted Marks as saying.
According to the release, there are currently four phototherapy units at the West Demerara Hospital which were donated by the California non-profit organisation. The Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation; Linden Hospital Complex; New Amsterdam Hospital; Suddie Hospital and Bartica Hospital are also recipients of the equipment from DRev.
