Counseling - Birth asphyxia.
(hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy- HIE)
Hello Mrs. Smith I am Dr. Munagapati, senior house officer in the department of paediatrics. I would like to have a little chat with you regarding your son Richard. As you know we have to admit him to the special care baby unit yesterday. Unfortunately he went through a tough time when he was born. He was very distressed because of the cord prolapse and his brain was starved of oxygen for a while. Due to this he was floppy when he came out and needed help with his breathing. As you can see now he is on a ventilator, a machine that breathes for him.
Unfortunately he also started to fit yesterday and he is on medication to control his fits. We have done a scan of his brain, which shows some swelling. We are hoping that this will go down in the next few days.
Is very early and very hard to say what the long term effects of this will be. He might recover with only a minor physical disability or he might be more disabled. It is really hard to say at this point.
We need to monitor his progress carefully over the next few weeks. We will also be doing more blood tests and head scans. We will let you know any results immediately.
In the mean time try not to worry too much, as these are early days. I know it is hard. We will encourage you to spend as much time with him as possible, here on the baby unit.
Before discharging your baby we will inform the physiotherapist, health visitor, social worker and GP. We will arrange regular appointments for frequent follow up of Richard.
I will give you the telephone number for Cerebral palsy helpline where you can meet parents of children with similar condition.
If there are any questions please ask us. Thank you, Mrs. Smith.