Rainbow Children's Hospital, based in Hyderabad, has established a Neonatal and Paediatric emergency transport service in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi. The advanced transport system has a customised ambulance, ventilator, incubator, monitor, syringe pumps, and defibrillator. It is like an “ICU on wheels”. All these transports are attended by experienced doctors and trained nurses so that there is continued ICU care on the way to tertiary care facility. Rainbow said it has transported more than 15,000 children and neonates over the last two decades. Rainbow has also provided Emergency Air transport service and has transported children and neonates from Raipur, Goa, and Visakhapatnam.
Baby Mehreen Fatima was a healthy 2.7 kg when she was born at a district hospital, but she developed trouble in breathing just a few hours after birth. The doctors suspected a heart problem in baby and sent him away to a Cardiac Centre in Hyderabad. There, the cardiologists found that the right side of the baby’s heart is poorly functioning, which caused a drop in the baby's oxygen levels. The baby was then found to have a serious condition called Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN). Adding to it, doctors found holes in both of the baby's lungs and had to put in drains to release the extra air. PPHN is a common problem in neonates which makes the newborn baby very sick. Many times, they don’t recover with normal (Conventional) ventilator, and need special type of ventilator like High Frequency Ventilator (HFOV) and inhaled Nitric Oxide. There is also need of advanced NICU supported by cardiologists, and experienced neonatal care to save these sick and critical ill babies.
Her health was getting worse and she needed High-Frequency Oscillation Ventilation, along with Nitric Oxide gas to help her body get more oxygen. This was done through a ventilator. A normal ventilator gives 40–60 breaths per minute, while a High-Frequency Oscillation Ventilation machine gives 600–900 breaths per minute. Unfortunately, there aren't many NICUs in India that have these life-saving tools for giving HFOV and Nitric oxide. The baby immediately needed an Advance LEVEL 4 NICU unit like Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, along with round-the-clock Neonatologist support. However, till recently it was challenging to transport these types of sick babies as there was no facility in India to provide HFOV and inhaled Nitric oxide during transport. Earlier, such babies who were already sick with PPHN and receiving HFOV could not be transported because they may deteriorate on the way to advanced neonatal facility in absence of HFOV ventilator during transport.
Rainbow children’s Hospital Neonatal Transport Team claims that for the first time in India, it used HFOV ventilator with Inhaled Nitric Oxide during transport to save such a sick baby. After reaching Rainbow Neonatal ICU, she was treated with Surfactant, HFOV, inhaled nitric oxide for next three days with two chest drains to help her lung holes to heal. The baby girl started improving with surfactant and Nitric oxide along with HFOV ventilator. She needed critical care monitoring, regular cardiac assessment and multiple inotropes (to maintain normal blood pressure) for next five days. “There has not been a critical care facility, like this, available during transit in India before, therefore the entire operation was ground-breaking and first of its kind,” the hospital claimed.