Two North Lincolnshire mums whose children were diagnosed with heart defects have praised a revolutionary piece of equipment that allowed their infant daughters to undergo crucial scans without the need for general anaesthetic.
The MRI Baby Incubator – also known as the “babypod” – at Leeds Children’s Hospital has transformed the way doctors look after babies with congenital heart disease, as a groundbreaking alternative to paediatric MRI scans. The incubator is the only one of its kind in the UK, with the hospital the first in Europe to provide the facility for heart MRI scans.
Emma-Jane Hickie from Metheringham, North Lincolnshire had a fetal MRI scan at 32 weeks pregnant, where baby Sophie was diagnosed with borderline left heart, a congenital heart defect in which the structures that make up the left side of the heart are smaller than they should be.
READ MORE:
Just 24 hours after Sophie was born, she was moved from her bed on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) into the babypod and taken for her MRI scan.
Recalling the experience, Emma-Jane said: “Sophie was swaddled in a blanket and placed into the pod, she had the plate strapped onto her chest and had little ear defenders put on to block out the noise. Once she had her dummy she was peaceful, cosy and went back to sleep. Once the consent forms were signed Sophie was taken down for her MRI. I was able to go with her if I wanted to.
(Image: Submitted)
“Dr Malenka was extremely reassuring throughout the whole process. She showed me the babypod before Sophie was born which really helped me to picture what would happen. After all the poking and prodding our babies have to go through with having CHD the MRI is extremely beneficial as it is completely non-invasive.
“Sophie had echocardiograms before and after surgery. The MRI was is a lot less stressful for Sophie. The echocardiograms use cold jelly which Sophie did not appreciate. Being swaddled and warm in the baby pod was just like being in her NICU bed so didn’t seem like she was actually having a test done.
“Sophie has a borderline left ventricle which made it difficult for surgeons to decide which surgery would be best. I feel that the images from the MRI really helped in making that decision. Sophie was able to remain bi-ventricular which might have been a different story if the images didn’t give the surgeons hope that her CHD could be repaired.
(Image: Submitted)
“The images from the babypod MRI really helped me understand my baby’s condition better. I could actually see her defect in black and white rather than trying to picture it from conversations with cardiologists and surgeons.”
Aged just eight days old, baby Ebony Jones from Scunthorpe was rushed to hospital in September last year after she turned purple and couldn’t breathe properly. After doctors carried out a scan of her heart, it became clear that it wasn’t working as it should be, and she was transferred to Leeds Children’s Hospital.
Mum Courtney said: “Our little Ebony’s organs had started to shut down and it was still very touch and go if she would make the journey. Once at Leeds we were informed that Ebony had hypoplastic left heart syndrome and coarctation of the aorta as well as two holes, one in the top and one in the bottom.
(Image: Submitted)
“We found the babypod to be a very calm experience. We didn’t have to worry about the effects of the anaesthetic or waiting until our daughter had come back round. The babypod helped as the doctors got a better image of her heart rather than doing an echocardiogram which will only show so much.”
Ebony had seven-hour open heart surgery in October 2023, informed by the data from the MRI scan.
The equipment was provided by Children’s Heart Surgery Fund (CHSF), thanks to additional funders including the Morrisons Foundation, Heart Research UK and Ilkley Round Table.
Courtney added: “To the funders of the incubator I would say thank you, it creates a such better experience for the whole family and also gives the doctors a better image of what they are looking at and it can help to diagnose and treat.”
(Image: Submitted)
Dr Malenka Bissell, Consultant in Congenital Cardiac MRI at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, worked with clinicians in the US on the science behind the equipment, and has overseen countless baby MRI scans since she introduced it into clinical practice at Leeds four years ago.
She said: “I’m so excited that we can now image the heart in the same way we can imaging the brain already, without needing a general anaesthetic. This has transformed how we look after our babies in the high-risk clinic. The high-risk clinic time is a time of huge uncertainty for parents.
“Doing the babypod MRI scan at two to three months of age helps us formulate likely treatment plans much earlier than previously. Some of our high-risk babies previously were too fragile to have an MRI scan under general anaesthetic and we were only able to CT scan which is missing crucial information about blood flow. Now all of our high risk clinic babies – no matter how fragile – can benefit from the babypod.”
To find out more about CHSF and its vital work, click here.
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
