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YOUR HEALTH: Cooling down newborns to prevent brain damage

Doctors are dropping newborns' temperatures to save their lives.

DENVER — Delivering a baby can be a risky business.

The delivery can be complicated causing cerebral palsy, epilepsy, developmental delays and learning disabilities. But now, a technique called therapeutic hypothermia could cool babies down and prevent brain damage. 

It was used on Adalyne Burgie when she was born in 2019.

She was rushed from the delivery room into a special crib to save her life. 

"I had an emergency C-section and then Adalyne was born not breathing," her mother, Amanda, remembered.

"Instead of hearing the happy sounds of a baby crying, we heard them starting CPR on our daughter."

Adalyne did not receive enough oxygen and blood supply to her brain during delivery.

"With cooling, we now have the ability to further reduce the damage," said pediatric neurologist Katharine Meddles of Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.

When a newborn is in this type of distress, doctors place the infant on a water-filled blanket to lower their core temperature to 92 degrees Fahrenheit, slowing the brain's metabolism, decreasing the chance of tissue damage and brain injury.

"Cooling seems to interrupt that process," explained Dr. Meddles.

Newborns stay in the bed for 72 hours and then their bodies are slowly brought back up to 97.5 degrees. 

The cooling can't reverse damage to cells already injured, but it can stop new damage.

"You could go from perhaps having a risk of mild cerebral palsy to potentially having a normal outcome," said Dr. Meddles.

As for Adalyne, she is quickly surpassing all goals for her age group.

"She's walking, happy, smiling, chatting," said her mother Amanda. "She's our little miracle."

There are risks to this treatment.  There can be extra bleeding and also lung problems. So, babies using the cooling bed are monitored around the clock. 

The children are then followed for two years by a team of physicians, seeing them every other month for the first few months, then every six months after that.

If this story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Jim Mertens at jim.mertens@wqad.com or Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com.

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