GSK donates a high-end ultrasound scanner to Lady Ridgeway Hospital

Saturday, 22 June 2013 06:55 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has donated a high-end, ultra-portable ultrasound scanner to the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital in Colombo, to support the treatment of children admitted with dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever. The unit, costing Rs 5 million, was presented to Dr Rathnasiri Hewage, Director of the hospital by T. S. Dayanand, Managing Director GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and Stuart Chapman, Managing Director - GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. It is only the second such machine in use in Sri Lanka.

This high-end ultrasound scanner would be a life-saving instrument that could be used to detect leakage of fluid at the critical stage of dengue. It can be taken to the bedside of critically ill patients, the company said. “The Lady Ridgeway hospital is at the forefront in treating children suffering from dengue,” GSK Consumer Healthcare Managing Director T. S. Dayanand said. “We hope that having a dedicated high-end ultrasound scanner would facilitate the work of doctors working round the clock to save lives at this institution.” GSK Pharmaceuticals Managing Director Stuart Chapman said the company welcomed the opportunity to help in efforts to treat dengue, which has reached hyper-endemic status in Sri Lanka. “As an articulation of our corporate mission of improving the quality of human life by helping people to do more, feel better and live longer, GSK is committed to assisting the medical fraternity and the community in numerous ways,” he said. Speaking at the presentation of the machine to the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital, Dr. Rathnasiri Hewage said the ultrasound scanner donated would save many lives and help the hospital get closer to its goal of reducing its dengue-related mortality rate from the present .3 per cent to .1 per cent. Because it is ultra-sensitive, the donated ultrasound scanner is capable of detecting even a small quantity of fluid inside the body cavity of a patient, Dr. Hewage said. The 901-bed Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital is the largest public free-of-charge paediatric hospital in the world. As the national referral centre for paediatric care in Sri Lanka, the hospital receives patients under the age of 12 from all parts of the country, every day. One of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, GSK and its predecessors have been doing business in Sri Lanka since the late 1930s. GSK is the only pharmaceutical and healthcare company to tackle the three ‘priority’ diseases identified by the World Health Organization (WHO): HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.