28.09.2022

The Controlled Hypothermia project, implemented with the sponsorship of the Samruk-Kazyna Trust, shared the first results of its work. From May 2021 to September 2022, 22 newborns have been saved using automatic hypothermia equipment. Five oblast Perinatal Centres in Karaganda, Taldykorgan, Aktau, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk and the City Perinatal Centre of Shymkent received modern hypothermia units and encephalography monitors on behalf of the Samruk-Kazyna JSC group of companies. The total cost of the equipment was 132 million tenge.

Since the start of the Controlled Hypothermia project, a total of 22 children’s lives have been saved using 6 units. In the Perinatal Centre of the Karaganda Oblast Multidisciplinary Hospital, the lives of 16 children born with severe and moderate asphyxia were saved using an automatic hypothermia unit. Just immediately after installation, hypothermia units were used to nurse 3 babies in Aktau, and one each in Taldykorgan, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Shymkent.

“Even today, the results of the Controlled Hypothermia project are impressive. The units we handed over will work for many years in the hands of experienced neonatologists. Support of the oblast projects in the healthcare sector is one of the most important priorities for Samruk-Kazyna JSC. This is a contribution on behalf of a group of companies to solve the country’s pressing social problems, which, of course, include reducing child mortality,” said Sergozha Kaliaskarov, Deputy General Director of the Samruk Kazyna Trust Foundation.

Before specialized equipment arrived, mechanical hypothermia was used in intensive care units using improvised means, which did not always lead to satisfactory results. Maintaining the desired temperature at exactly 34 degrees for 72 hours, and then gradually warming up the child, was an extremely difficult task. Thanks to the assistance of Samruk-Kazyna JSC in partnership with AYALA Charity Foundation, this labor-intensive process is now fully automated in the intensive care units of Perinatal Centres. The result is the life and functional health of the children saved by it.

“We are exceedingly glad that the Samruk Kazyna Trust Foundation and AYALA Charity Foundation responded to our request for help. Thanks to the recently installed equipment, we were able to save the life of a child born with severe asphyxia. This is the best proof of the high need for this equipment. I am sure that future mothers of the city of Shymkent will join our words of deep gratitude to the sponsor for this valuable gift,” said Daulet Satov, deputy chief medical officer of the City Perinatal Centre of Shymkent.

Therapeutic hypothermia shall be used in the first hours of a newborn’s life. The unit automatically and smoothly reduces the newborn’s body temperature to 34 degrees and maintains it at the desired level for 72 hours, and then gradually warms the child. Only this makes it possible to change the metabolism in the child’s body, provide its brain with glucose, and thereby protect the cells of the central nervous system from irreversible damage. The amplitude electroencephalography monitor that comes in theset with the hypothermia unit helps doctors monitor and efficiently adjust the therapy used.

“In 2017, our Foundation signed a Memorandum with the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan to support the Controlled Hypothermia project. During this time, the lives and health of 235 newborns were saved using equipment installed by AYALA Foundation in 12 cities of Kazakhstan We are very grateful to the Samruk-Kazyna Trust for their assistance in equipping six children’s intensive care units with equipment that helps reduce child mortality and disability in Kazakhstan,” stressed Aidan Suleimenova, President of AYALA Charity Foundation.