Physical Health United Kingdom Project #30686

Providing life-saving machines for heart babies

by Tiny Tickers

Providing life-saving machines for heart babies

Project Report | Jul 28, 2022
Western Isles receives life-saving machines

By Anne Rhodes | Head of Training

Finlay

We recently placed six pulse oximetry machines within NHS Western Isles, Scotland, thanks to the generous support of Ruth and Finlay Macleod, in memory of their son, Finlay Eric.

Finlay Eric tragically passed away at four months old from an undetected heart defect. The family's fundraising has now raised over £29,000, which his parents say, "Will provide the gift of hope to babies and their families, by supporting the work of Tiny Tickers."

Thanks to the money raised in memory of Finlay Eric, and your generous donations, we have been able to place six pulse oximetry machines within NHS Western Isles serving the communities of the Isles of Harris & Lewis in Scotland. These monitors, which can help detect serious heart conditions soon after birth, will be used to help improve early detection rates of congenital heart disease (CHD) in babies.

Newborn screening for CHD involves a simple bedside test called pulse oximetry. This test estimates the amount of oxygen in a baby's blood. Low levels of oxygen in the blood can be a sign of CHD. The test is carried out using a machine called a pulse oximeter, with sensors placed on the baby's skin.

These pulse oximetry machines will be used by paediatricians and midwives when a baby’s first physical examination is undertaken, or if a baby’s condition means that they require additional observations. Pulse oximetry testing is not a mandatory part of newborn screening in the UK and Tiny Tickers aims to end the postcode lottery, by placing these machines across the UK.

The six monitors were donated to NHS Western Isles as part of our Test for Tommy campaign, which aims to ensure that all newborns receive the test that could help save their life, and were generously funded by the donations raised in memory of Finlay Eric.

Catherine Macdonald, Head of Midwifery, Western Isles Hospital, says, “We are delighted to have received the very generous donation of pulse oximetry monitors from Tiny Tickers, which will be distributed to Maternity Services across the Western Isles. The monitors will enable us to start screening all babies delivered within the Western Isles for potential cardiac anomalies, as well as giving us the opportunity to monitor, as required, any babies that give cause for concern. We hope to embed pulse oximetry checks into newborn examinations from July or August this year, following staff training. We are grateful to Ruth and Finlay Macleod for championing this campaign locally and the community who have so generously donated to their fundraising. Always in our hearts is baby Finlay Eric.”

Thank you for your support and for helping ensure that every newborn in the UK gets the test that could save their life.

Anne

Katie, Tiny Tickers & staff at NHS Western Isles

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Mar 30, 2022
346 pulse oximetry machines and counting

By Katie Lawson | Head of Fundraising & Comms

When we placed our first pulse oximetry machine in 2017 at Good Hope Hospital, Birmingham, we set a target of placing 330 machines nationwide by April 2022.

At the time, we anticipated that 330 pulse oximetry machines would fulfil the initial demand from maternity hospitals across the UK. We’re delighted to report that we have now surpassed this target and, as of March 2022, we have placed 346 machines.

Why are we placing pulse oximetry machines?

Babies with undetected heart defects will often fall into the early stages of heart failure – significantly impacting their long-term quality of life. Some will die before anyone realises they have a poorly heart, or before getting the surgery that would save them. Early detection means that parents-to-be receive immediate support and reduces the wider impact on critical services and their families lives – fewer dangerous and costly emergency admissions to hospital, and fewer cancelled elective operations because of these admissions.

Pulse oximetry testing helps to detect heart defects by measuring oxygen levels (oxygen saturation) in the blood. Low oxygen levels can be a key sign that a baby could have a critical heart defect. At present, pulse oximetry testing is not a mandatory newborn test within NHS hospitals, and many maternity units do not have the means to introduce these life-saving machines. For these reasons, we decided to place these machines in maternity units across the UK.

Regional roll-out and Test for Tommy

Taking a regional approach, we started this project in 2017, in Yorkshire, before moving on to the East and West Midlands in 2018. After launching our Test for Tommy Appeal in November 2018, we began receiving applications from hospitals all over the UK. And many of our supporters got on board too, fundraising to place machines in their local areas.

We were delighted as the number of pulse oximetry machines we placed increased into double, and then triple, figures. But when the pandemic hit in 2020 we had to pause the project while the NHS put all its resources into dealing with the crisis.

Thankfully, we were able to resume placement of machines again in 2021 and, in April, we hit a significant milestone, placing our 200th machines at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. The 346 Tiny Tickers funded machines are now being used in hospital wards throughout the UK - from Southampton to Shetland and Ysbyty Gwynedd to York. Parents and health professionals constantly tell us how grateful they are, and we have heard of many instances of babies' lives being saved after receiving a pulse oximetry test on a Tiny Tickers funded machine.

The future

We owe the success of this project to so many people: our incredible staff team, who work tirelessly to ensure machines are funded and placed; the individuals and organisations who fund the machines; the inspirational McKellar family, who so bravely shared their devastating loss of baby Tommy in order to prevent further deaths; all the health professionals involved in introducing pulse oximetry testing to their departments and Professor Andrew Ewer, Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Birmingham and advocate for pulse oximetry screening, who has supported us from the very beginning.

We may have smashed our initial target, but we have no intention of slowing down or stopping. Quite the opposite – more and more hospitals are applying for machines and we intend to keep fulfilling these orders, until the postcode lottery is over and every newborn baby receives the test that could help save their life.

Thank you for supporting Tommy's legacy.

NHS Trusts can apply for pulse oximetry machines here.

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Nov 29, 2021
12 babies. Six Machines. One Day.

By Katie | Team Tiny Tickers

Baby Leo

Thank you so much for your past support of our pulse oximetry project. With your support we have placed 298 pulse oximetry machines in maternity units across the UK to date. It is only thanks to people like you that we can continue to support babies with congenital heart defects. It is only possible because you care.

Today, around 12 babies will be born in the UK with serious heart conditions. Six of these babies will have been diagnosed during pregnancy. The other six will be born with no-one knowing they have a poorly heart.

A pulse oximetry test is the quickest and easiest way to ensure these six babies receive a diagnosis as soon as possible.

We have been placing pulse oximetry machines in UK maternity units since 2017, supplying both bedside and handheld machines. Early detection of heart defects improves a baby’s chances of survival and long-term quality of life. Babies who are discharged from hospital without a diagnosis may fall into heart failure before anyone knows how critically ill they are. Treatment for congenital heart disease has advanced rapidly in recent years. Most babies with heart conditions will go on to live a full life – if they receive treatment in time. Tiny Tickers aims to ensure they make it to the operating table.

Pulse oximetry testing, which can help detect heart defects in newborns, is not part of the mandatory NHS newborn checks. We believe every baby deserves the test that could help save their life, which is why we place these potentially life-saving machines in hospitals.

Today is Giving Tuesday, the day of GlobalGiving, and we’re asking you to help us raise £1,452 so we can place six potentially life-saving handheld pulse oximetry machines in UK hospitals.

Each of these handheld machines symbolises one of the six babies who will be born today with no-one knowing they have a serious heart condition. Each machine will test thousands of babies every year, meaning those with undiagnosed heart conditions will have a better chance of surviving and thriving.

Tiny Tickers’ mission is that every baby with a serious heart condition is diagnosed as soon as medically possible. Today, we need to find the six babies who have been sent home with an undiagnosed heart condition.

Will you help and donate today? Just £6 will help us to ensure six babies get the test that could save their life, TODAY.

A huge thank you for your support. Your help means that ALL babies born with congenital heart disease have an equal chance of fighting, and ultimately beating, their condition.

Thank you.

12 babies, six machines, one day.

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