MRI unit a boost for very ill children

VERY ill newborn babies are doing better since the new children’s MRI unit opened at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Dublin 10 months ago.

The €7 million unit, officially opened yesterday by Health Minister Mary Harney, has already been used in the treatment of around 1,200 children from all over Ireland.

The State-funded facility has ended the unsatisfactory practice of transporting sick children and staff from the Children’s Hospital across the city for MRI scans in other hospitals.

The hospital’s director of radiology, Dr Jerry Kelleher, said newborns now had significantly better outcomes because it was often at this stage that they were too ill to travel to another hospital for an MRI scan.

The children’s MRI department, in operation since December 2006, is now conducting specialised MRI scans for cardiac patients.

Cardiac MRI methods can provide more comprehensive data than many other cardiac evaluation methods.

The ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of a child’s heart defect to improve surgical treatment and medical outcomes with a non-invasive procedure.

The child-friendly equipment also helps to comfort young patients. Children are able to watch their favourite DVD during their examination because a player has been incorporated into the scanner.

Also, parents can be with their child at all times during the scan.

“There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain, scared and confused by their surroundings,” said Dr Kelleher.

The specialist staff who work in the unit were committed to providing the least traumatic experience for children and their parents and Dr Kelleher said he was extremely proud to say that this had been delivered upon.

A new, updated gamma camera in the radiology department is of a specification that allows the child to have a less invasive nuclear medicine procedure. The camera, the first of its kind for children in Ireland, minimises discomfort because it able to move to and around the patient.

Ms Harney congratulated staff in the Children’s MRI department for their work done to date. She also praised the foresight of the Health Service Executive in identifying the facility as a priority project.

She was delighted with the patient-centred care that she witnessed during her visit to the unit and was particularly pleased with the effort made by the hospital to integrate familiar surroundings, people and objects into children’s hospital experience.