Helping Little Hearts
Families of unborn babies with heart conditions in Scotland will now benefit from the latest, state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment and pioneering scanning techniques.
Each year in Scotland, 1 in 100 babies are born with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) – the most common group of newborn and fetus abnormalities - with many needing life-saving care and surgery after birth.
Thanks to fundraising by Barclays Scotland, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity funded ultra-high resolution scanning equipment worth £96,000 to enhance Scotland’s national Fetal Cardiology Service at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children.
The new equipment will help medics detect and treat life-changing abnormalities more accurately. It will also present fetal cardiologists with the opportunity to pioneer new techniques and research, putting Scotland at the forefront of an area of medicine which is seeing significant development.
The little hearts that we look at are about the size of a thumbnail, meaning that the structures within the heart are only millimetres in size. This new scanner will provide the highest level of detail to make sure we can give an accurate diagnosis and put the appropriate treatment plans in place to care for these unborn babies up until, and after birth.Dr Lindsey Hunter, Consultant Fetal Cardiologist
The new equipment will help medics detect and treat life-changing abnormalities more accurately. It will also present fetal cardiologists with the opportunity to pioneer new techniques and research, putting Scotland at the forefront of an area of medicine which is seeing significant development.
Scotland’s only accredited Consultant Fetal Cardiologist, Dr Lindsey Hunter, leads a team of dedicated professionals committed to supporting life at its earliest conception:
“I am proud of the generosity and kindness of colleagues who have gone above and beyond to raise funds. Their efforts, with matched funding from Barclays, have translated into a lifeline for families and helped to give Scotland an important boost in a pioneering area of medicine.”
Scott Stewart, Head of Barclays Scotland,