URMC / Golisano Children's Hospital / Ways to Give / Attend an Event / Hospital Gala / Fund-A-Need Fund-A-Need Life-Saving Equipment, Right-Sized For Babies Up to 40 percent of babies in intensive care units have acute kidney injury. Without continuous hemodialysis—a procedure during which blood is pumped out of the body and filtered before being pumped back—many will not survive. Right now, at GCH, and at nearly every children’s hospital in the U.S., these critically ill babies have only one option: hemodialysis machines designed for adults, which have significant limitations and risks. The machine’s alarms are calibrated for adults. Because infants and children have lower blood volumes, the effect of any errors is amplified. And it can be challenging and time consuming to connect infants to a machine made for people more than 10 times their size. For infants with serious health issues, and for the doctors who care for them, this is incredibly precious time. The journey could be much easier. The CARPEDIEM® (Cardio Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine) is a miniaturized dialysis machine designed to perform continuous dialysis in newborns and infants who weigh 5-20 lbs. In 2020, by working closely with the FDA and manufacturers, GCH faculty members were able to get CARPEDIEM® approved for use in the U.S. By giving to this year’s fund-a-need, you can bring CARPEDIEM® machines to GCH and provide crucial, lifesaving technology for seriously ill children. We hope to purchase three CARPEDIEM® machines at $110,000 apiece—one each for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU). You can fund these machines and help us initiate a cutting-edge pediatric dialysis program built specifically for infants and small children. Many babies in our intensive care units are facing severe kidney disease. CARPEDIEM® machines are tailor-made to treat these kids. It is the lifesaving technology that they so desperately need. -Patrick Brophy, MD, MHCDS Physician-in-Chief, Golisano Children's Hospital The William H. Eilinger Chair of Pediatrics What is CARPEDIEM®? CARPEDIEM® (Cardio Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine) is a miniaturized dialysis machine developed in Italy in 2014, and approved for use in the U.S. in 2020. It is designed for infants and babies and has the capacity to accurately handle the significantly lower blood flow rates of children. Right now, CARPEDIEM® is only available at one hospital in the U.S. Why is CARPEDIEM® so crucial? As many as 40 percent of babies in intensive care units are diagnosed with acute kidney injury. They are critically ill and need dialysis to survive. Traditional dialysis machines are designed for adults, who have much larger blood volumes and blood flow rates. While they can be used on children, the machinery has to be adapted to fit them, and there are safety issues and other challenges involved in calibrating these machines for our smallest patients. CARPEDIEM® is right-sized for kids. It is tailored for infants and children who weigh 5-20 pounds and designed to accommodate their lower blood flow rates and volumes. CARPEDIEM® machines offer the precision, accuracy, and portability to save children’s lives and improve their longterm quality of life. To support the fund-a-need or for more information, contact Scott Rasmussen, senior assistant vice president for advancement, at (585) 766-2993 or srasmussen@admin.rochester.edu or Betsy Findlay, senior director of advancement at (585) 273-5933 or betsy.findlay@rochester.edu.