"Hypoxic brain injury is caused by lack of oxygen in a baby's brain during labor and/or delivery. It can lead to death or permanent brain damage. Therapeutic hypothermia (deliberate lowering of the body temperature) aims to cool the brain soon after birth and for several days afterwards to prevent secondary brain damage. It is done by cooling either the baby's head with a purpose-made cap, or the whole body with a purpose-made blanket or mattress. The baby's temperature is measured throughout to ensure that the right amount of cooling is used. After cooling, the baby's temperature is gradually returned to normal."
SO....Where did this whole entire idea come from? Well, it's actually quite interesting. If you would like to know more about it, here is an awesome article...http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/dec/10/life-death-therapeutic-hypothermia-anna-bagenholm
So your next question might be...how did this breakthrough treatment come to the Lehigh Valley Hospital? Read onto the next blog post about the Lauren's Hope Foundation to find out!!!!
So basically our son was born with an anoxic brain injury due to a loss of oxygen, also known as Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy. I had never heard of this treatment before... All I could hope was for the best. Here are a few key points and links to article see below to further explain technically what this treatment is all about.
1. "Cooling was safe and did not result in serious side-effects." ...and all I remember is being told in recovery that this treatment COULD help, but it definitely won't hurt" I remember I quickly started shaking my head yes to the doctor as if saying, "Go Go Go!"
2. "Cooling did not have any effect on seizures within the first 3 days of life." (basically what this means is that although during the treatment you may notice your child experiencing what appears to be a seizure...which did happen to us, it does NOT mean that the treatment is not effective, good information to have but not something anyone will come out and say!)
3. "Although major neurodevelopmental disability as a whole was reduced by cooling, there was no benefit of cooling with regard to separate outcomes of cerebral palsy, neuromotor delay, developmental delay, blindness or sensorineural deafness requiring hearing aids." (what I want to stress here is that even though we were watching our child meet major milestones and thrive, and we were sure he was okay- the doctors still continue to traumatize you repeatedly telling you that your child is still at VERY high risk for all of these things!... you will never hear a doctor tell you your child is going to be OKAY even though you know in your heart you know they will be, it causes you to always second guess yourself, and as a momma, that kills me!)
4. "Until recently there was no effective treatment for HIE; once an infant developed asphyxia, there was no way to stop brain damage or death from occurring."
http://www.lvhn.org/lehighvalleyhealthnews/2013/02/26/hypothermia-treatment-gives-easton-newborn-hope-and-brings-family-peace-of-mind/
http://www.nationwidechildrens.http://apps.who.int/rhl/newborn/cd003311_ballotde_com/en/org/neonatal-therapeutic-hypothermia
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