Globo Repórter this Friday (29) showed smaller cities that have become health reference centers with the help of technology. In Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, a city in the interior of Espírito Santo, the public maternity hospital receives patients from 27 other cities in the region and is supported by doctors who are more than 800 km away, at the Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo, thanks to conference call.
This remote collaboration allows us to discuss the best way to provide care, including in complex cases, such as that of newborn Rhuan, admitted to the neonatal ICU in Cachoeiro. Rhuan’s mother, Alana, was hospitalized when she was less than six months pregnant. After suffering a series of complications, she suffered brain death.
The family chose to maintain the pregnancy until it was viable to remove the baby from the uterus. It took 42 days until birth.
“She really wanted this child and wanted to give me a grandson, and after everything, we made her dream come true. […] Rhuan is a miracle for everything he has been through and Alana is a warrior”, says her grandmother, Adailda Benedita dos Santos.
Cachoeiro doctors believe that this was only possible because of the exchange they had with their colleagues in São Paulo, through tele ICU.
“Because they already had experience with a case that happened there. So for us it was much easier to rely on a team that had already been through something similar than if we needed to start from scratch”, highlights the gynecologist and obstetrician at Hospital Francisco de Assis (HIFA), Inara Junqueira Dardengo.
/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2023/2/J/Vd4RW0Q3mg4ORvxheEpA/captura-de-tela-2023-09-29-152336.png "'Rhuan is a miracle': Baby spends 42 days in the womb after mother's brain death 5")
Rhuan was born extremely premature and was saved with the help of many doctors. — Photo: TV Globo/Reproduction
The conference call
Every morning, the team of doctors in Cachoeiro connect, via teleconference, with specialists at Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo.
From the room in the capital of São Paulo, the medical team continues with daily meetings with hospitals in 11 states. The doctors write down everything that is discussed and analyze the exams.
“They go through situations that we are not used to going through here. Often, lack of equipment, lack of labor. Many times, we are used to asking for a certain test, and they don’t have it. Then they say: ‘look, we do it this way, we work this way’. So, I think that in the same way that we bring knowledge to them, they also help us a lot”says Veridiana Freire Franco, gynecologist and obstetrician at Hospital das Clínicas FMUSP.
