Every parent hopes their child will be able to enjoy the best possible start to life and have access to essential treatment should they need it. But a lack of specialised neonatal expertise has meant that hasn’t always been possible in the Zambian capital of Lusaka.
The charity Zambia Anaesthesia Development Program (ZADP) noticed this during trips to the city to provide teaching to the country’s anaesthetic trainees. So they created a neonatal life support course which trained more than 350 staff and students in 2018. The organisation then worked with professionals including West Yorkshire-based paediatric trainee doctor Aoife Hurley to create a neonatal fellowship to support the improvements.
Aoife became the first person to take up the voluntary unpaid role, and our specialist Medical Negligence team in Leeds were delighted to provide a professional grant to support her. She flew out to Lusaka in February and spent six months on a neonatal intensive care unit based at the University Teaching Hospital in the city.
Aoife on her trip: “The head of the neonatal department is Zambia’s only formally trained neonatologist, Dr Kapembwa. Under her leadership, the team have managed to reduce the mortality rate through simple measures such as hand washing and feeding guidelines.
“It’s only meant to have capacity for 40 patients, but there are regularly more than 100 present as well as up to 20 admissions daily. There was no safe way to ventilate infants on the unit, while it also often runs out of oxygen supplies.”
Valuable work
Despite the intense pressure faced by staff on the unit, Aoife undertook a host of valuable work in Lusaka. She worked on projects to tackle issues like hypothermia and neonatal life support, as well as nursing teaching days and projects to improve parents experience of the neonatal unit. While her fellowship ended in August, the work is now being continued by the local team.
Aoife said: “The fellowship has been invaluable on a personal and professional level, as it allowed me to work in another culture and take on a more leadership-based role.
“It was incredibly difficult seeing patients pass away from preventable causes, not having the same chances that they’d have in the UK, but so much of the work I was involved in was deeply rewarding too. I’m thankful to everyone who gave me the opportunity to help.”
Strengthening bonds
Social Stitchers is a Leeds-based initiative that sees the city’s employees, including staff from our office, come together to create handcrafted items for good causes.
When the group heard about Aoife’s fellowship, they knitted bonding squares and baby clothes for her to take out to Lusaka. Bonding squares can be particularly important in neonatal care, as they can be swapped between a parent and child, meaning a baby being treated in an incubator can smell their mother at all times, helping to form their bond. These squares also helped mothers with breast milk production during difficult times.
Turning Point – Winter 2019
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