Today, after the handover, I took part in the student teaching of the minor students, i.e. the students in the bachelor's degree. The other students gave presentations on various pre- and neonatal problems, such as asphyxia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia and TTN, transient tachypnea of newborn, also known as wet lung. Fittingly, a newborn with asphyxia was later admitted from another hospital. The mother had gestational diabetes, so the newborn was very large for his gestational age and easily hypoglycaemic despite glucose administration. In asphyxia, the newborn suffers from severe hypoxaemia and associated acidosis. A common cause is meconium aspiration. Our newborn could not be delivered smoothly because of a shoulder dystocia and also sustained a humerus fracture.
Because of the severity of the asphyxia (the Thompson score, which is used to assess hypoxic brain damage, was over 8), the baby was cooled to 33.5°C. Studies showed that hypothermia can reduce the risk of further brain damage*. Afterwards, I was able to listen in on a science meeting where the medical and PhD students shared their current research. I also found the videos of an intubation and the insertion of a central venous access catheter in a newborn from the Neoflix project, which Veerle showed me, very cool. She is investigating the extent to which video documentation can be used to optimise hospital workflows and learn from old mistakes.
*Cooling for newborns with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy,
Susan E Jacobs et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013.
The conference room, where the handovers take part.
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