Dr. John Murphy:

Science has moved on and one of the other big issues that has emerged is that for the first ever we have possible treatment for brain damaged babies or babies who lacked oxygen at birth. This is termed therapeutic cooling. What happens is that the baby is cooled to 32o centigrade for 72 hours. This is a very effective treatment and one in four or five of babies treated in this fashion will be normal. We have had some great results with this treatment in the past two to three years. However, the problem is this treatment must be instituted within six hours of birth. What we get people to do locally is to turn off the heaters and keep the babies cold. Then we collect the babies and keep them cool during transport. This is the opposite of what one might think. It is not a good idea to wrap these babies up when they have suffered asphyxia.

We have had some wonderful success stories in the past two years with therapeutic cooling and one in four or five of babies who would have gone on to have significant cerebral palsy are normal. This treatment can only improve, now we have the first breakthrough in preventing this. Oddly enough, the damage from lack of oxygen to the brain does not happen immediately, but over a period of time and if we get within that window, we have the opportunity to reverse the damage. The committee can, therefore, see why we are so keen to be able to transport patients and teach and train people around the country not to put on the radiant heaters but to keep these babies cool so that we can collect them and transport them cold as quickly as possible.