Sudbury's NEO Kids foundation working to make putting IVs in children easier

Getting your hands and arms poked for IV treatment while in hospital can be painful and uncomfortable and it's a lot more difficult to do for young children.

Doctors and nurses sometimes have trouble finding veins in small infants, resulting in multiple pokes and sometimes and IV needing to go into a baby's head.

NEO Kids in Sudbury, a children's care hub at Health Sciences North, wants to make the job easier by purchasing money for a new piece of equipment called a vein viewer.

"It allows us to see those veins much more clearly," Dr. Sean Murray, a pediatrician at NEO Kids explained.

"It uses technology and essentially lights up the veins."

He says the machine would make treatment easier for children and their parents, but also for health care staff.

"It makes my job easier because I can feel comfortable with the fact that at least when kids are coming in they're getting holistic care that is patient-centred and hopefully not painful," he said.

"Having a lot less pain and discomfort makes everybody's job easier."

Matching donations

However, to get the piece of equipment in Sudbury, money needs to be raised. Fundraising for the vein viewer is part of NEO Kids Giving Tuesday campaign. The foundation is hoping to raise $20,000 by next Tuesday to purchase the equipment.

"We were fortunate enough to find a donor who's willing to match every donation we get up to $10,000, and that's Legend Boats," foundation president Patricia Mills said.

"So our goal is to raise $10,000. Legend Boats will give us the second $10,000 and we'll reach our goal of $20,000."

Anyone who wishes to donate can contact the NEO Kids Foundation.