Donation to help reduce burn-related mortality among children
The goal of Surgeons for Little Lives is to reduce infection-related mortality to below six per cent, which is more closely aligned to the global standard of between three per cent and five per cent.
A CHEQUE for R400 000 was presented to Surgeons for Little Lives on March 19 to help reduce sepsis-related mortality in young burn victims who have been admitted to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital Paediatric Burns Unit.
Dr Solly Motuba, chief commercial officer for Metropolitan Health, said in 2018 the burns unit at the hospital admitted 588 patients, up from 459 in 2017.
“While the number of patients increased significantly, the capacity of the unit remained unchanged, with 19 beds in three wards and seven isolation beds in the paediatric burns intensive care unit (PBICU).
“Mortality among burn victims is caused largely by hospital-acquired infection. The responsible organisms are often resistant to common antibiotics, making it even more difficult to combat the problem,” he added.
Factors that lead to the infections include the flow of patients and staff within the unit, a lack of isolation cubicles for infected patients and the lack of a decontamination cubicle at the entrance and exit to the ICU.
Surgeons for Little Lives is a non-profit company started by the Department of Paediatric Surgery at Wits University. The donation will be used to re-engineer the flow within the paediatric burns unit at the hospital and add as many isolation cubicles as possible.
The goal of Surgeons for Little Lives is to reduce infection-related mortality to below six per cent, which is more closely aligned to the global standard of between three per cent and five per cent.
Mothuba said interventions such as these are important as they help reduce some of the pressure on the country’s overburdened public healthcare system. “Most importantly, this initiative presents an important opportunity to give children who suffer burn-related trauma access to enhanced medical care and a better chance of survival,” he said.
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