Friends in hospital equipment donation

The Friends of the Bradford Royal Infirmary has provided two cutting-edge rapid blood transfuser machines to help with the quick transfusion of blood and intravenous fluids.

The devices warm fluids to speedily replace lost blood in emergencies and return them swiftly to patients.

The machines are the first to be purchased for surgical areas at the hospital and will be used in the maternity unit and in an operating theatre.

Consultant anaesthetist Lesley Hawthorne thanked the charity for the hi-tech donation.

She said: “As a regional trauma and vascular centre, we undertake many major elective surgery operations and because we have one of the region’s largest maternity units, we also have a significant proportion of high risk pregnancies.

“All these surgical procedures carry a high risk of massive blood loss and rapid blood infusers help us to give our patients large amounts of life-sustaining fluids, warmed to physiological temperature, which they desperately need as quickly and as safely as possible.”

Acting head of nursing for surgery and anaesthesia, Jayne Marran, said: “The purchase of rapid infusion devices will undoubtedly benefit the Bradford public should they, their relatives or loved ones, ever experience massive blood loss in the course of their lives.”

The Friends of the BRI, a 240-strong team of volunteers, last year gave £60,000 of gifts, including an electrocardiogram heart machine and bladder scanner for elderly care wards, new broadcasting equipment for Radio Royal, furniture for the new birth centre and 1,000 resource packs for carers of dementia patients. The majority of funds are raised through their three tea-bars in the ear, nose and throat outpatients’ department, the maternity building and the orthopaedics outpatients’ department.