HSA’s NICU Receives Brain Wave Monitor from Rotary Central Cayman Islands

The equipment provides continuous, real-time aEEG (amplitude-integrated electroencephalography) analysis, enabling NICU and paediatric teams to detect subclinical seizures, track background brain recovery and evaluate responses to interventions such as therapeutic hypothermia, enhancing care available to newborns at the HSA.

Consultant Neonatologist and Head of the Paediatric Department, Dr Robert Bomont, noted that “being able to have access to this machine is an incredible step forward; we were not able to offer this level of monitoring at the HSA prior to the donation. It helps us to make decisions regarding cooling with the same level of information available to much larger neonatal units.”

Cooling therapy involves lowering a newborn’s body temperature and is primarily used for newborn babies diagnosed with Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy, a type of brain injury caused by insufficient oxygen and blood flow to the brain during or shortly after birth.

“It is the first time that we have had the opportunity to monitor babies who are having seizures and fits, and to ensure that our intervention has either stopped or reduced that fit burden. It offers a segue to improvement, or the final piece of the puzzle in us giving treatment to babies who may or may not require cooling,” Dr Bomont stated.

The donation fulfils Rotary Central’s commitment made during its July 2025 observance of Maternal and Child Health Month, where Dr Bomont addressed the club and highlighted the specific needs of babies admitted to the NICU.

Rotary Central’s Community Service Director, Celia Middleton, noted that “We are pleased to officially hand over the Natus CFM Brainz Monitor to the HSA. The machine has been commissioned, and staff have been trained. This new monitor will allow the staff to care for these vulnerable NICU babies.”

This latest donation reflects the continuing partnership between Rotary Central and the HSA. “Rotary Central continues to meet identified needs within the community. For example, in the 2024-2025 Rotary year, Rotary Central, in partnership with their donors, donated the mobile blood bank unit to the Cayman Islands Blood Bank. This year, we have donated this brain wave monitor to the HSA’s NICU, which is all from the proceeds that we get from our annual raffle, Music Extravaganza, and bus shelter programme,” Director Middleton outlined.

In 2024, the HSA marked a neonatal milestone by successfully administering full therapeutic hypothermia to Baby Ella , who had been diagnosed with Hypoxic-Ischaemic Encephalopathy. She became the first newborn in the Cayman Islands to receive this treatment at the HSA. Hypoxic-Ischaemic Encephalopathy affects more than 1.2 million newborns each year.