Thanks to donations received from the Yorkshire Charity Clay Day Event last summer, Leeds Hospitals Charity has been able to purchase an EPIQ CVx cardiac scanner for the neonatal ward at Leeds Children’s Hospital.

This innovative machine, costing nearly £85,000, is able to detect congenital heart defects and also track development of the heart in premature babies. It is estimated that around 200 babies a year, across Yorkshire & the Humber, will need some kind of cardiac intervention procedure after birth. The cardiac scanner is already being used around three times a day for patients on the neonatal ward.

Recently, the scanner was used on baby Amelia, born prematurely at just 26 weeks old, to check for a medical condition called patent ductus arteriosus, where one of the vessels in the heart fails to close after birth.

Amelia’s mum Jenna said

“The care you get in this hospital is just amazing. They’ve really been looking after us since Amelia was born and nearly a month on, she is doing incredibly, getting stronger every day.”

Dr Lawrence Miall, Consultant on the neonatal ward said

“Charity donations are invaluable for helping us purchase equipment like this. It’s vital for infection control purposes, and to be able to scan patients quickly, that we have our own dedicated scanner on the ward, rather than having to share with another ward or department. By using the scanner on babies like Amelia, we can detect problems quickly, and continue to monitor them, without disrupting the excellent care they’re receiving on the ward.”

The new scanner replaced an older version of the machine that was becoming slow and difficult to use as it was nearly a decade old. The new cardiac scanner has wireless linkage to the latest cardiac software, better imaging technology and can be moved quickly & easily around the ward.