Pediatrics
Victoria General Hospital (VGH) is the referral centre for maternity and pediatrics on Vancouver Island. Expertise includes perinatal services, maternity care, a general pediatrics unit, and one of BC’s four high-level neonatal intensive care (NICU) and pediatric intensive care (PICU) units. Teams of pediatric specialists, including obstetricians, neonatologists, surgeons, nurses, midwives, therapists, and more, work together to provide coordinated care for these children.
Of the 3,000+ babies born annually at VGH, one in six spends time in the NICU. These include premature infants and those experiencing complications from cardiac, respiratory, ophthalmological, or auditory issues. With the help of neonatal equipment, our teams perform life-saving work every day. Over 1,500 children, aged 17 and under, received treatment on the Pediatric Units at VGH last year.
Equipment in this area funded by generous donors supporting The Big Picture campaign:
Doppler ultrasound unit - Antepartum (VGH)
From outside a mother’s body, the Doppler ultrasound unit is used to check the rate and pattern of a baby’s heartbeat — before birth and, intermittently, during labour and delivery. The unit’s probe, called a transducer, emits and receives continuous ultrasound waves and registers shifts in frequency and wavelength. As the distance between the probe and the fetal heart beat becomes shorter, the heartbeat becomes louder.
1 needed @$13,000.
Pediatric Gastroscope - Operating Room (VGH)
A gastroscope is used in endoscopic procedures, nonsurgical examinations of a person’s digestive tract, which aid in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, such as peptic ulcers and polyps. It can be used for stent placement for patients with blockages such as esophageal tumours. This unit is narrow in design for use in pediatric patients.
This scope will be used on about 300 patients per year at Victoria General Hospital.
1 needed @$67,000.
Intubation Visualization Unit - NICU (VGH)
If critically-ill infants are in respiratory distress, they may need their airway artificially opened through the process of intubation, the insertion of a ventilation tube into a patient’s trachea. This system, which includes a monitor, attaches to a single-use laryngoscope and allows for increased accuracy and visualization during the intubation process.
1 needed @$32,000.
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