Dora Paal has seen a six-week-old baby with sepsis and a one-year-old with asthma who needed to be put on a ventilator through her work anaesthetist.
And after covering shifts at rural hospitals in the region, the Raigmore Hospital consultant realised not everyone is equipped to handle such emergencies.
This year, she’s started training others with Scram bags – the name standing for Structured CRitical Airway Management – which hold all the equipment and checklists a medic needs.
How does the Scram bag help a seriously ill child?
If, for instance, a five-year-old asthmatic child arrives at the hospital and needs resuscitated, the bag will have all the equipment required.
The age guidance will let the doctor know the expected weight of the child, what size of tube they may need to use, how it sits in the windpipe and the correct dose of drugs.
Having everything based in one place also frees up other staff to help and reduces the need for one member of staff to do all the calculations.
Seriously ill children: What types of cases has Dr Paal seen?
During shifts working at Caithness General Hospital, she’s seen youngsters with life-threatening asthma attacks and cases of sepsis.
Children have also been taken in with head injuries after falling off trampolines and others have problems breathing due to pneumonia or Covid.
“With the North Coast 500, and likewise in Fort William with the proximity of Ben Nevis, there are accidents that do happen,” she said.
“There are children who are brought in, not just from the community but others who are tourists on holidays, who will need treatment and looked after.”
Dr Paal describes it as a “highly stressful” situation when a seriously ill child arrives at a rural hospital and saw there was a need for paediatric training.
She’s now travelling to rural hospitals to deliver the training with colleagues, including paediatric critical care lead consultant Dr Jonathan Whiteside.
There’s also a smaller Scram bag which can be used at rural GP surgeries.
The training has already saved a child’s life…
The project has already seen success.
A Scram bag has already saved the life of a small child in Caithness who was stabilised ahead of being transferred for specialist care.
The kit was created by two ambulance staff alongside innovation business InnoScot Health.
Leigh Mair, from the company, said: “As the innovation manager for north Scotland and the islands, I am especially pleased that the project seeks to improve paediatric critical care in remote and rural and island healthcare settings.
“The Scram bag is an example of one of the leading innovations we have helped to develop over the last 20 years.
“We look forward to its sustained success as more healthcare professionals get access to its unique time-saving properties through the training programme.”
Conversation