The neonatal unit at Cape Breton Regional Hospital is getting what the Sydney facility's fundraisers describe as a "transformative" donation from a local couple. At a ceremony on Friday morning, staff at the newly christened Sutherland Neonatal Intensive Care Unit celebrated the generosity of Gordon and Joan Sutherland. The Cape Breton couple chose the NICU as the destination for a donation they first offered to the hospital in May.
Neither the couple nor the Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation disclosed the amount of the donation, which will be spread out over a 10-year period. The couple's gift has already allowed the NICU to either replace or plan to replace aging equipment that was complicating the jobs of its staffers, according to the unit's clinical nurse lead, Haley Gouthro. As an example, she pointed to infant incubators that are "past their life expectancy" and new brain monitors that oversee brain function and seizure activity in babies in the NICU.
"It was very challenging for bedside staff to be able to interpret the information on the monitor," Gouthro said. "So this new monitor would allow for really easy interpretation, which would of course allow us to diagnose and treat the infant a lot sooner. And if infants are required to be transferred to the IWK [Health Centre], that would happen in a more timely fashion.
" In addition to other equipment needs such as ultrasound machines and phototherapy lights, the donated funds will also enable upgrades to rooms t.
