Angel History
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| In 1972, with funding
from a Regional Medical Program (MRP) grant, a program was initiated at
Vanderbilt to provide perinatal consultation, perinatal education
programs and to establish a neonatal transport service to our referral
area. The NICU at the time consisted of 16 intensive
care beds. Since neonatal services at regional hospitals
were in their infancy, the goal of the early transport team was to reach
the infant as quickly as possible, transfer the infant to the mobile
NICU and provide stabilization in the vehicle. The earlier
versions of Angel were designed with these goals in mind.
The transport vehicle included open bed warmers so the team had access
to the infant. All of the supplies needed to establish an
airway or venous (or arterial) access were kept in the vehicle. |
Angel I
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| During the
first year in operation, Angel I transport team served 295 patients from
the referral area. The standard transport team consisted of
a Neonatologist, an R.N. with neonatal intensive care experience, and a
driver who could also serve as an assistant to the team. The
transport vehicle was equipped with ventilators and monitoring equipment
including a blood gas analyzer. Many of the referring
hospitals at the time were unable to measure ABG's using microsampling
techniques. Initially, there was not a charge to the patient
for the transport service. |
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Angel II
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In 1980, Angel II
replaced the original vehicle as the transport unit. It was
a modified 28-foot motor home which expanded the patient care area
allowing for more equipment and room to move than it's
predecessor. The focus of stabilizing the infant
on-board continued with this vehicle. Again, the
ventilators and most of the stabilization equipment was on the transport
vehicle including open bed warmers to work on and blood gas monitoring
equipment. Some of the "new" updates on this
transporter was hot and cold water supply, a refrigerator for storage of
culture media and a mobile phone for quick communications with the
referring hospital's nursery and Vanderbilt NICU. The
average number of infants served by this time was over 400 infants a
year. Average mileage traveled was 30,000.
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| Angel III began
servicing the middle Tennessee region in 1986 in a new streamlined Ford
unit that was designed and modified specifically for
Vanderbilt. With the increasing level of care in the
regional hospitals, the new vehicle was designed to stabilize the infant
inside the referring hospital. Rather than having open bed warmers
in the vehicle, the emphasis was on a specialized incubator that
contained everything needed to stabilize and support a sick neonate
during the transport process. Ventilators are built into the
transport bed along with all monitoring equipment. The
vehicle maintained a blood gas analyzer initially, but was later removed
due to advancement in pulse oximetry.
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Angel III
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Angel
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In 1994, the fourth
vehicle simply known as "Angel" debuted as the first to be
built on a Freightliner truck chassis. It was also the first
to be fully equipped to transport two newborn infants simultaneously at
all times.
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| After logging more than
2.5 million miles and bringing more than 8,500 critically ill newborns
to Vanderbilt's Children Hospital, the Newborn Emergency Transport
Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1999. To help
celebrate is the new $250,000 custom designed ambulance named
"Guardian Angel". Two additional seats behind the
driver provide room for medical or nursing staff and students to
ride along with the transport team which is composed of a neonatal
nurse practitioner or neonatology fellow, a neonatal intensive care
nurse and a driver-assistant.
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Guardian Angel
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