A Humanitarian Project by Rotary Club of Mangalore, to bring Hope and Healing to Babies Born, Premature
Government Lady Goschen Hospital is a Government’s district community maternity hospital caters to ‘High Risk’ pregnancy cases pertaining to not only our district but also the surrounding 6-7 districts. Nearly 7000 deliveries take place each year and of which, 70% are ‘high’ and ‘very high risk’ pregnancies. Our district has an Infant Mortality rate of 10% with Neonatal Mortality of 5.3 per 1000 live births and to reduce it, we need to save babies born with weight, less than 1500 grams. This Lady Goshen Hospital contributes to 65-70% of all neonatal deaths in the district and Rotary Club of Mangalore thought it would be appropriate to establish Human Milk Bank in this hospital.
In high-risk cases, one challenge that medical profession faces, is the availability of mother’s milk after delivery of premature babies. In order to address this challenge, Rotary Cub of Mangalore, took up the project of setting up ‘Human Milk bank’ in the hospital, where through this facility, it is possible to store the donor human milk and feed the same to tiny new born babies and to babies, whose mothers have lactation failure. Feeding human milk, not only save lives but also improves health of such prematurely born babies beyond survival.
The project initially was proposed to Rotary, by Dr. U,.V. Shenoy, Consultant Paediatrician of Govt. Wenlock Hospital who convinced the Rotary club to take up this life saving project. The project cost is around 35 lakhs and the funding of the project is done through Rotary Global Grant number GG2123577 of the Rotary Foundation. We were generously supported by our own Rotary District 3181 and our foreign partners RI district 6540, RI district 6600, Rotary Club of Kentland and New Tampa Noon Rotary Club, all from USA.
The club is fortunate to get all time support of Dr. B. Shantharam Baliga, consultant paediatrician who is responsible for setting up the NICU unit at Lady Goschen Hospital, has guided the project Manager and team, throughout, till its implementation stage. The Human Milk Bank staff are trained by Dr. Sreenath Manikanti of Amara Milk Bank, Bangalore in both operating procedures and controls. The installation of the equipments and initial technical and Operations training was done by the vendor on 16th and 17th of February, testing and soft launch was done till 3rd of march. Rotary Amruth will initially focus on meeting the needs of the needy babies of the Lady Goschen Hospital first, before serving others.
The Medical Superintendent Dr. Duragprasad and RMO Dr. Balakrishna of Lady Goschen Hospital have extended their whole hearted cooperation to this project. Rotary Club of Mangalore is thankful to the Deputy Commissioner of our District Dr. K.V. Rajendra for his support and encouragement in the implementation of this project.
The official inauguration of Rotary Amruth, The Human Milk Bank is scheduled for 5th of at 4 PM, on 3rd Floor of Lady Goschen Hospital, MRPL block. It will be inaugurated by Rotary District Governor Rtn. A.R. Ravindra Bhat in the presence of Vedavyas Kamath, MLA, Mangalore South, Dr. Bharath Shetty, MLA, Mangalore North, Dr. K.V. Rajendra, Deputy Commissioner, Dr. Durgaprasad, Medical superintendent of Lady Goschen Hospital, Rtn. Sudhir Jalan, President, Rotary Club of Mangalore, Dr. Arjun Nayak, Secretary, Rotary Club of Mangalore, Rtn. Archibald Menezes, Chairman, Rotary Amruth, Global Grant Project, along with Officials of Lady Goshen Hospital, Rotary Club of Mangalore and other invited guests. We request all our media friends to attend the function and give wide publicity to this noble venture, it deserves.