Every year, the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital (RCWMCH) experiences a seasonal surge with huge increases in the number of respiratory cases (bronchiolitis, pneumonia, TB), diarrhoea in children as well as accidental burns. Severe malnutrition is another factor in the surge of admissions, especially since we are in the midst of a global pandemic where food insecurities are a reality.
Respiratory difficulties escalate as temperatures drop, and it is quite common to observe a surge in paediatric admissions over the winter period in South Africa. During this time, the Hospital’s Emergency Centre (EC) sees an influx of patients. With experience and dedication, the EC must react to highly stressful situations daily, and medical professionals are no strangers to stress.
Many patients under the age of five, present with signs of dehydration. Dehydration, due to gastro, remains one of the main causes of illness and death in children under the age of five years.
Sister Zanele Nxumalo, Operational Manager of the Medical EC, said that the new rehydration and isolation room is one of the best rooms to treat dehydrated patients. The caring nurses also show parents and caregivers how to make the sugar-salt solution which will prevent future dehydration as well as empower the parents and caregivers.
Life in a pandemic has led the Hospital to adapt to Covid protocol; being proactive about adequate spacing and the necessity to protect little patients through pre-emptive isolation. Steps are taken to ensure that no-one is turned away. Concerns about the lack of beds and monitors, lack of adequate spacing and effective isolation are global. Parents all over the world would, without hesitation, rush to get medical attention for the children at even the slightest indication of respiratory distress.
“With adults, we know, if you have a cough, sore throat, headache, fever, chills, muscle aches, you could possibly have Covid in these times,” says Professor Heloise Buys, the Head of the Clinical Unit: Ambulatory and Emergency Paediatrics at RCWMCH.
“Those symptoms overlap with normal, common paediatric conditions. For example, a child with bronchiolitis will have a cough, fast breathing, and a fever, but they may not have Covid – or they may have Covid, together with the illness. Therefore, we needed to put the correct measures in place to ensure adequate spacing and flow in the EC that also prevents the spread of Covid.”
Boosted by the phenomenal generosity of donors, through the Children’s Hospital Trust’s fundraising efforts, the EC will be equipped with even more life-saving medical technology and apparatus. One of the pieces of equipment that Prof Buys is very excited about, is called an Airvo, which is a humidifier with an integrated flow generator that delivers warmed and humidified respiratory gases to spontaneously breathing patients.
“With children suffering from respiratory failure such as pneumonia, asthma and bronchiolitis, the Airvo offers a non-invasive method to little patients to receive their oxygen,” she says.
