Royal visit to Evelina London Children’s Hospital

Sophie, Lady Frederick Windsor calls for more donations to buy vital ultrasound vein finders

London, UK: Lady Frederick Windsor, also known as the actress Sophie Winkleman, visited Evelina London Children’s Hospital on Wednesday to see the ultrasound vein finder that The Children’s Surgery Foundation donated to the paediatric surgical ward.

The mother of two children, who is the royal patron of The Children’s Surgery Foundation, said the ultrasound vein finders “are absolutely incredible – they are game-changers”, and she urged people to donate to the campaign to ensure that every paediatric surgical unit in the country possessed one.

Sophie said: “Very sick children often have to have cannulas put in place for blood tests, fluids and medication during their treatment, and this can be traumatising. Children have tiny veins so inserting tubes or taking blood can be very tricky and time-consuming. The ultrasound vein finders locate the vein instantly, which makes inserting cannulas much less scary for small children and less distressing for their parents.

“I wish more than anything that every paediatric surgical ward in the country had several of these, but they are very expensive, and each one has to be painstakingly fundraised for. I am pleading with as many people as possible to donate to The Children’s Surgery Foundation Beam campaign, which aims to provide one ultrasound vein finder for each of the 26 units across the country.”

Consultant paediatric and neonatal surgeon at Evelina London, Mr Iain Yardley, who welcomed Sophie during her visit, said: “The ultrasound allows us to identify veins that are invisible to the naked eye because they are below the skin or in deeper tissue such as muscles. It allows us to trace the vein along its length and ensure it is not blocked further up, which is common after multiple intravenous cannulas have been used. It then allows the needle used to insert the IV cannula to be directed into the vein precisely.”

Vascular access clinical nurse specialist at Evelina London, Ms Ruth Brennan, said: “It is difficult to place cannulas in some children and babies, as they may have complex arrangements of blood vessels or their veins may have been cannulated many times before. In these cases, putting in a cannula can be distressing for some children when a vein is particularly difficult to find. In a small number of children this can lead to several attempts being made and can cause distress. Now, thanks to the donation, we can cannulate patients who we feel we could not cannulate without the machine.”

Intravenous cannulas are used for blood tests, for delivering anaesthetics, or longer-term medications such as chemotherapy, or for delivering life-saving fluid resuscitation and medication in an emergency.

Iain said: “The ultrasound machine is kept on Savannah ward, the surgical ward at Evelina London, and is used in children undergoing surgery under the care of a number of different specialties, but it is also portable and can be, and is, used in children in other areas of the hospital. The ultrasound vein finder is an expensive and high-quality piece of kit, which we now use alongside our other vein finding equipment. This donation has enabled it to be deployed much faster than would have been possible otherwise.”

The ultrasound vein finders cost between £5,000 and £40,000 each, depending on the type of machine the hospital requests. For instance, a small hand-held machine, no bigger than a mobile phone, provides flexibility, while the larger machines on trolleys, like the one in Evelina London, provide greater resolution and are the most expensive.

A further £800,000 is needed to fund a nationwide training, education and research programme. At present, The Children’s Surgery Foundation has only been able to donate ultrasound vein finders to three of the 26 paediatric surgical wards, which are located across the UK.

Sophie said: “Being seriously ill is terrifying for both the patient and the parent. The Children’s Surgery Foundation provides the most effective solutions to make the process of dealing with pain, worry and uncertainty as reassuring and painless as possible. I’m so very proud to help them as much as I possibly can. I think that anyone with a heart is interested in making life for very ill children and their families as bearable as possible. I am lucky to be patron of this incredible charity which does just that – it cocoons children and their families in care and practical solutions that only a top paediatric surgeon would fully understand how to provide.”

Sophie toured the Evelina London Children’s Hospital ward with Iain and Ruth, and also Mr Munther Haddad, chairman of The Children’s Surgery Foundation, and she met with Dr Gubby Ayida, the chief executive of Evelina London. Sophie spent time with a family, who explained how the Evelina London’s ultrasound vein finder had eased their treatment.

Munther said: “It is essential for every paediatric surgical unit to have this ultrasound machine so we can avoid the suffering of children with difficult-to-find veins who need intravenous access for any medical or surgical procedure.”

Munther, who is former President of the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons (BAPS) and a retired senior consultant paediatric and neonatal surgeon at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, added: “The Children’s Surgery Foundation aims to raise £1 million through our Beam Campaign to provide an ultrasound vein finder machine to every paediatric surgical unit in the UK. I would urge everyone to donate to help us achieve this goal for the sake of our children.”

Vascular access clinical nurse specialist, Ruth Brennan, explains how the ultrasound vein finder works

“The ultrasound vein finder provided by the Children’s Surgery Foundation enables us, as vascular access nurse specialists, to assess children’s vasculature and effectively cannulate veins that can only be seen using the ultrasound machine. These veins are mainly in the forearm.

“Some children like to watch the screen on the machine when they are being assessed. When a vein is selected, we apply a little pressure on and off the vein to ensure it is appropriate to cannulate. This makes the vein look like a ‘bouncing ball’ or a ‘winking eye’ on the screen, which a lot of children find fun to watch. This also helps to distract children and their parents from the procedure itself.

“The ultrasound machine has different-sized probes, which enables us to use it on children from birth to adulthood. It has a large monitor, which aids easier visibility when cannulating little veins. The larger screen is also very beneficial when teaching our colleagues ultrasound-guided cannulation.”

Bertie’s story

Bertie Melly was born prematurely at 24 weeks and five days after his mother, Phoebe, unknowingly contracted an e.coli infection that caused her to go into labour.

Since his birth on 8 May 2024 when he weighed just 745g, Bertie has remained in hospital, apart from a seven-hour daily window when he is disconnected from his total parenteral nutrition (TPN) intravenous line and can venture outside with his parents.

Bertie has undergone five abdominal surgeries at Evelina London. His first operation occurred when he was just ten days old after he developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious intestinal disease that can affect premature babies and causes inflammation and death of intestinal tissue.

Surgeons had to remove the damaged part of his colon near the rectum and create stomas, and since then, he has had further operations to reconnect his bowel. Heavy adhesions caused his intestines to stick together, causing blockages and requiring emergency surgery. This resulted in the majority of Bertie’s small bowel being removed, leaving just 35 cms. However, he retained most of his colon when his bowels were reconnected recently in what his parents hope will be his last bowel surgery.

His parents, Phoebe, 32, an accountant, and Callum, 36, a marketing manager, have remained by his side throughout. In addition to a tube in his airways to help him breathe during his early months, Bertie has had numerous cannulas and several long lines inserted into his veins, through which medication and nutrition can be delivered and blood tests taken.

Phoebe said: “Bertie has had so many cannulas fitted that the medical staff struggle to find veins that are still usable, as they can become scarred and unusable if accessed too many times. As Bertie gets older, cannulation gets harder for him and for us because he is so much more aware of what is going on.”

Almost all Bertie’s cannulations have been done while he’s awake.

Phoebe said: “A couple of weekends ago, Bertie’s central line for his IV nutrition became infected. When this happens the line can no longer be used for anything apart from antibiotics, so Bertie had to have a cannula put in for fluids to be administered. Due to the difficult nature of Bertie’s veins because of his medical history, doctors called the anaesthetic team to come and put a cannula in using the ultrasound vein finder. It was amazing to see first-hand, and the anaesthetist managed to insert the cannula in one attempt in a calm and controlled manner.”

Phoebe and Callum want ultrasound vein finders to be available to every child.

“Irrespective of whether you’re a parent or a doctor, it just makes everything less stressful, less painful and less traumatic. These ultrasound vein finders scope out the vein, they show you where it is, how thick it is and what depth it is, so it’s so easy to know where to insert the cannula in just one attempt,” said Callum.

Callum and Phoebe hope to take Bertie home by the end of this year. By then they hope his bowel will be trained to digest food and he will have developed the skills needed to consume enough nutrition via his mouth, rather than a tube. At present, his nutrition is still delivered intravenously.

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The Children’s Surgery Foundation
The Children’s Surgery Foundation works to transform the experience of children needing surgery in the UK. The charity invests in innovative technology that make the most challenging aspects of surgery easier for children, their families and medical teams who care for them. The charity enhances the service available on the NHS and enables these additional resources to become available across the UK’s children’s surgical units.

The Beam Campaign
The Beam Campaign aims to raise £1 million to provide each of the 26 paediatric surgical units in the country with an ultrasound vein finder. These ultrasound vein finders allow clinicians to identify the most appropriate blood vessel quickly and easily, reducing pain and the risk of damage to veins from repeated cannulation attempts.