Approximately two thousand preterm babies are born in Lithuania every year. Their lives essentially depend on intensive care facilities. 95 percent of these babies survive and grow up. However, even the survivors may never be fully able to breath, see or think. Intensive medical care in the first weeks of their life is impossible without modern means, enabling even a 0.5 kg newborn baby to grow up a healthy person.

In order to improve the nursing conditions for those who cannot take care of themselves, MC Charity Foundation endowed the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Children’s Hospital, the affiliate of Vilnius University Hospital Santariskiu Klinikos with an ultrasonic cardiac output monitor USCOM 1A. The device enables a quality diagnostic of critically ill and preterm infants’ health condition.

The USCOM monitor is one of the most modern devices in the world for critically ill patients. It allows a non-invasive assessment of heart work and blood circulation using the ultrasound-based technology and enables a real time monitoring of over 20 heart function parameters. According to K. Čiuželienė, the founder of the Foundation, this device helps saving lives when time is scarce for the physicians to make the right decision. “Every second matters in nursing or medical treatment of critically ill or preterm babies, and the ultrasonic cardiac output monitor USCOM will ensure safe, fast and very accurate diagnostic of infants’ heart and blood circulation disorders”, tells K. Čiuželienė.

The head of the Foundation M. Čiuželis said: “Although this device has been successfully applied in the treatment of adults and older children already for a while, its application for the newborns has just started. In Lithuania, the USCOM cardiac work and blood circulation assessment technology has not been applied for the newborns yet, thus it will be a new qualitative step in improving the quality of the smallest patients’ treatment and increasing their survival chances.”

Director of the Neonatology Centre of the Children’s Hospital, doctor of medical sciences Arūnas Liubšys is delighted about cooperation with MC Charity Foundation and confirms that critically ill and preterm babies would not survive without the newest state-of-the-art technology: “It is very difficult to assess the state of seriously ill and preterm babies, particularly when the condition is critical. The right choice and success of the treatment depends very much on an objective evaluation of blood circulation and heart work. However, it is very difficult to do that, as the evaluation methods used presently are invasive, which is not only dangerous to the newborns, but also very difficult or even impossible to apply. The USCOM monitor is a cutting edge solution significantly increasing the chances of the preterm infant survival”. 

Cooperating with the Neonatology Centre of the Children’s Hospital MC Charity Foundation confirms its determination to invest in the most advanced technologies improving the quality of medical care in Lithuania. Everyone deserves a life that is worth living.