Posted in Equipment

A package arrived at the Heart Centre for Children with a little Humpty Dumpty Foundation logo on it today and the staff got really excited, because we know that it means one of the pieces of equipment that is on the Humpty Dumpty Foundation's wish list has been granted.  Much like a Christmas list, we have a wishlist of things that we're in need of to help us diagnose, treat and support the kids that we see.  This morning the package that arrived in the Heart Centre turned out to be four new holter monitors. Holter monitors are like ECG's - they measure the heart's rhythm - but they stay on for 24 hours instead of just a few minutes.  We attach the holter monitor to a child's chest and back and he or she can run, play, eat, sleep and do just about anything in the holter monitor except get it wet (which means no shower or bath for 24 hours).  Then when we get it back, we're able to look at any unusual rhythms over that 24 hour perio...

Thanks to the incredible efforts of Debbie Kladis, Charlie Garcia and the team at Wishing Hearts, who organised a huge gala dinner in August 2012, we were able to purchase a Radio Frequency Perforator which will allow us to treat more children with catheterisation (keyhole surgery) rather than open heart surgery.  Dr Phil Roberts, Lead Interventional Cardiologist at the Heart Centre for Children, was delighted to receive the new piece of equipment in November and has had several cases where the device has been used already.