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New endoscopy machine would make
all the difference |
They just don’t know why little Sophie can’t
swallow
By Kris Gilmartin
LITTLE Sophie Shand is 13 months old and is just like any other toddler.
 She plays with her toys, she laughs and cries and has an irrepressible curiosity. There’s just one thing that makes her different from other little girls — she can’t swallow her food.
As she lies sleeping in her pram in Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, she looks very peaceful, unaffected by the feeding tubes entering through her nose, supplying her stomach with the vital nutrients she needs to grow and stay healthy.
Reflux issue
Her parents Claire and Graham, from Portlethen, just south of Aberdeen, don’t know what’s wrong, except that Sophie has a reflux issue.
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 Sophie Shand, along with mum Claire and dad Graham, are hoping Dr Gamal Mahdi can, with the invaluable help of an endoscopy machine, discover why she can’t keep food and drink down.
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“The problem was noticed at birth,” explains doting mum Claire.
“Sophie has problems swallowing food or milk and chokes quite regularly.
“This is only her second time in hospital. She was in as a baby and we’ve had continual outpatient appointments with
her ever since.
“She’s been in hospital for nearly two weeks this time and she’ll be in for another week yet, I imagine.”
The Shands are taking time off work to be by Sophie’s bedside and give each other support. But, as they know, it’s a waiting game.
Endoscope
The day The Sunday Post visited, Sophie had undergone an upper-endoscopy to try to locate the problem.
“She was under anaesthetic during the procedure so she was fine, she was up and playing once she woke up,” Claire adds.
So far, the tests using an endoscope, a long and thin camera that works using optic fibres, have revealed Sophie may have a disease in her gullet.
“But the doctors are still unsure about just what the disease is.
“At the moment it means more investigation and tests,” says Claire. “They don’t know if it’s medication or an operation that will fix her.”
Dr Gamal Mahdi is a consultant paediatrician and gastroenterologist at RACH.
He’s Sophie’s doctor and knows just how important a new endoscopy stack would be to the children he sees on a daily basis.
“The machine we have at the moment is nearly 14 years old. It is still functional and working okay, but it is coming to the end of its life,” he explains.
Impossible
“Unfortunately, the company who manufacture this particular machine has stopped producing this line.
“If we need to repair this machine or get new parts, it will be virtually impossible.
“So, in the next year or two, if it breaks down we will effectively be without an endoscopy machine. There is a certain pressure to replace this machine, not immediately, but very soon.
“We are quite happy with it at the moment,” he says, “However, when you learn about new equipment available now — and what it is actually capable of doing — there is a world of difference. It gives you more pixels, higher definition and a much better quality of picture,” he adds.
“It gives you an edge in making the correct diagnosis at an early stage. It gives you another edge in dealing with certain problems.
Problems
“The new equipment is capable of producing certain wavelengths that can tell you things that were only possible before using a biopsy.”
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Above — Sister Diane Rayner and Dr Michael Bisset with the “old” endoscopy scope which is in several pieces and is now nearing the end of its working life.
Below — A state-of-the-art endoscopy machine, which is what staff at RACH would like to improve their service to children.
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Dr Michael Bisset is another gastroenterologist who knows the great need for the new machine. He says, “We only have one stack in the children’s ward, and this sometimes creates problems because we have surgeons who use the equipment as well.
“We have more than one theatre and will have surgeons who need to use the machine at the same time, so we find ourselves juggling it around.
Diagnose
“We can use the machine to diagnose Crohn’s disease, for example, as well as ulcers, tumours and coeliac disease — an inflammation problem affecting the small bowel — which affect one in
150 of the population.
“Basically we can diagnose any disease within the oesophagus, the stomach, the upper part of the intestine, or
the colon.
“With the surgeons and ourselves we undertake around 200 procedures every year.”
£41,000
The new machine costs £41,000 and includes a high definition television that is mounted on the theatre wall, allowing everyone present to view what’s going on.
It is also an essential learning tool for medical students.
When Sophie and her family go home next week, she will continue to be fed using a drip and, although it’s not ideal, the Shands have become patient while waiting to find the cause
of her illness.
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We’re sure the big hearted readers at The Sunday Post
can rally round and donate the essential funds that will not only help Sophie, but the 200 other children every year being treated at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
“This new equipment might be able to get to the bottom of what is causing the problem,” says Claire.
“It could really have a positive impact on all our lives.”
 Next story
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You can e-mail us at:
hospitals@sundaypost.com |
