As many as 105 pulse oximeters were donated to 95 hospitals in Vietnam to support their neonatal intensive care units.

The donation ceremony in Hanoi on August 8

The equipment, valued at over USD160,000, was donated by Masimo Corporation, a US-based global medical technology company through the East Meets West Foundation (EMW)’s Breath of Life programme.

The 105 brand-new pulse oximeters, the best currently available on the international market for intensive newborn care, are expected to benefit at least 30,000 newborn babies in Vietnam every year.

Under the programme, the EMW in partnership with the National Obstetrics Hospital and National Paediatrics Hospital in Hanoi and Children’s Hospital No.1 and Tu Du Hospital in HCM City is holding two training workshops on managing oxygen in pre-term infants in intensive care for 190 doctors and nurses from the 95 hospitals that will receive Masimo’s pulse oximeters.

The opening conference in Hanoi on August 8-10, 2011 will be followed by a second workshop in HCMC City on August 10-12.

“Respiratory distress is considered the most common disease and major cause of deaths among infants, particularly pre-term ones. Oxygen therapy is critical for treatment and it is of utmost importance to manage oxygen. If not, infants will be at risk of vision loss or other eye damage and related lung diseases. The problem will be better solved with SPO2 machine; however, many hospitals in Vietnam currently lack SPO2s in their NICU,” said Dr. Nguyen Viet Tien, Deputy Minister of Health cum Director of National Obstetrics Hospital.

“The conferences on oxygen management for pre-term infants during intensive care together with the package of 105 SPO2 machines donated by EMW/MASIMO will help a lot in improving neonatal care quality,” Tien noted.

The National Hospital of Obstetrics said that about 10 percent of the 20,000 births at the hospital were pre-term. This exposed them to risk of vision loss, eye damage or lung diseases without appropriate oxygen therapy.

As part of the Breath of Life programme, EMW handed over two newborn care devices worth USD5,200 donated by Dai-ichi Life Vietnam to Tuyen Quang General Hospital.

Breath of Life has run since 2005, and is designed to reduce infant mortality in Southeast Asia, and train medical workers in the care of newborn babies.