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This year Finnan’s Gift is committed to buying new Surgical Heater-Cooler Machines for the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne (RCH). The Cardiac Surgery team requires two new heater-cooler units, which are key components of heart-lung machines. The heater-cooler units provide accurate control of both a patient’s blood temperature and the temperature of their heart. Any incremental change in a patient’s temperature during surgery could have disastrous impact on their little body. Without a heater-cooler unit, surgeons would not be able to safely operate and risk causing life-threatening damage to the heart and other vital organs.
2021
Surgical Heater-Cooler Machine
When a child undergoes heart surgery at the RCH, their life is in expert hands of the Cardiac Surgery Unit. As the national paediatric cardiac centre, the highly trained team of surgeons, nurses, anaesthetists and perfusionsists perform around 950 cardiac procedures each year, providing essential support for children with heart conditions, from new-born babies to teenagers.
Associate Professor Steve Horton, Director of Perfusion at the RCH, operates the heart-lung machine during cardiac surgeries.
“Our heater-cooler units are 20-years-old and have reached the end of their operational life. We need new heater-cooler units which feature the latest technology so we can work more precisely with the ability to adjust a patient’s blood or heart temperature to a tenth of a degree,” said Steve.
With your help, the cardiac surgery team can deliver the best care and save the lives of some of the sickest children in the country.