In 2022 Friends of PICU were delighted to fund a specialist piece of equipment for PICU, an ECMO machine which costs £68,000. In January 2024, Friends of PICU were delighted to fund an additional, essential piece of ECMO equipment; a Landings Monitoring System for patients on ECMO support costing £35,000.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used to support children with severe heart or lung failure and can help children to recover following critical illness. Whilst not treating the underlying heart or lung disease, this method allows the blood to “bypass” the heart and lungs, allowing these organs to rest and heal. This ECMO machine, the first one specifically for the PICU Unit, also supports with staff training of the PICU ECMO Nurses which is an important part of delivery of this extraordinary service by ensuring that all ECMO staff receive regular, refresher training. Since being funded by the charity, it has been used to provide life support for multiple critically ill children. The Landings Monitoring System attaches directly to the ECMO machine.
Matron, Lorna St John, told us “We are so very grateful to Friends of PICU for the funding of this vital piece of specialist equipment. Monitoring patients on ECMO can be challenging, as often our normal monitoring parameters are not available to us due to the patients very poor clinical status. It is also a source of continuous information for the bedside team to fully understand the patient and assist in important clinical decision making to benefit the patient directly. The Landings Monitor is one of the most current ECMO technology on the market. ECMO is rapidly evolving and the addition of monitoring components to ECMO machines is part of this continuous evolution to ensure the care of every patient is delivered as safely as possible. We’d like to thank Friends of PICU for their continued support, and every single person that raises money for the charity to enable such equipment to be funded. Your support really does make such a difference to our patients.”
Southampton PICU is one of only 11 designated ECMO centres in the UK. In addition to treating children from 27 referring hospitals PICU supports across the South of England, they also work with the other three ECMO centres in London and the Southeast to provide care to children from outside the area when necessary. ECMO as a therapy requires a highly specialised team. The specialist ECMO nurses are experienced intensive care nurses who are trained in ECMO management. Each child will have two nurses caring for them on each shift, both of whom are competent specialist ECMO nurses. There are currently 24 ECMO nurses who are supported by a wider team of experts, including ECMO surgeons, perfusionists, the ECMO Lead and Matron.
Friends of PICU are honoured to be able to fund the equipment required for such a critical, and vital, service. But this has only been possible because of the support that we receive from you – our incredible community and corporate supporters. A huge Thank You to you all.
