Children’s hospital opens renovated neonatal intensive care unit

Latvia’s Children’s Clinical University Hospital has opened its renovated neonatal intensive care unit, where parents or other relatives will be able to stay overnight with babies. Their presence can help speed recovery, particularly for the smallest patients, LSM reported.

The unit will begin receiving the hospital’s smallest patients in November. Many are born prematurely, and some are smaller than a packet of sugar. The hospital’s Neonatology Clinic cares for about 800 babies a year, with around 300 initially treated in intensive care.

Babies are brought to the unit from maternity wards across Latvia, as well as from home if they become acutely ill during their first month. Neonatology Clinic head Kristīne Rasnača said the renovated unit is the first phase of the project and cares for patients needing the closest monitoring and greatest medical support.

Ieva Kalniņa, head nurse of the hospital’s First Department, recalled caring for a baby girl who weighed 486 grams. The baby began treatment in an incubator and was about as long as an electric thermometer, Kalniņa said. She has since grown up and gone home.