Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in the Rawlco Centre for Mother Baby Care at Regina General Hospital, will benefit once again from the long-standing partnership between Hospitals of Regina Foundation and the Sandra Schmirler Foundation.

The Sandra Schmirler Foundation was created as a Legacy to Sandra’s memory, who is remembered not only as a great curling champion but also as generous, and devoted to family and friends. Countless babies who were born prematurely and critically ill have been saved with life-saving technology funded in her name. This year, the Sandra Schmirler Foundation made a new two year pledge of $100,000 to support Hospitals of Regina Foundation’s investment in High Frequency Jet Ventilators (HFJV) for our NICU.

“We believe that every baby deserves the chance to grow up and be a champion like Sandra. We’re very proud to once again partner with Hospitals of Regina Foundation to help fund this innovative life-saving equipment for the NICU at Regina General Hospital.” says Bernadette McIntyre, chair, Sandra Schmirler Foundation. “The Foundation is committed to keeping Sandra’s love of family alive in Saskatchewan and across Canada by helping to give these miracle babies the chance to live their dreams.”

A new category of premature babies has recently been created, called micro-preemies, which refers to babies born earlier than 26 weeks gestation. At one time, these babies would never have survived but that is no longer the case. A baby’s lungs are one of the last things to fully develop, so micro-preemies are not able to breath on their own and require a high-frequency jet ventilator which delivers very quick, short, gentle bursts of oxygen, inducing around 400 breaths per minute. Because it delivers oxygen gently and more frequently, this ventilator protects the baby’s fragile lungs from too high a volume of oxygen, which can tear a hole in the fragile tissue.

“We are pleased to once again partner with the Sandra Schmirler Foundation to invest in our NICU,” says Dino Sophocleous, President and CEO, Hospitals of Regina Foundation.  “Ensuring our medical teams have the technology they need to provide life-saving care for our smallest patients is always a priority. It wouldn’t be possible without generous long time partners like the Sandra Schmirler Foundation.”