Saving a generation

Andrew works on the prevention and treatment of brain injury in newborn babies. Until recently the one thing that every paediatrician, nurse and parent anywhere would agree on is “You should never let a sick baby get cold.” Not so! Bristol has pioneered cooling babies with brain injury after severe lack of oxygen. Therapeutic hypothermia reduces both death and disability but would never have got started without laboratory research in animals. What can we add to cooling to help the brain recover?

Since the late 1970s I work on understanding how and why some babies die suddenly and unexpectedly. This research and its application have led to a 90% fall in unexpected infant deaths and means that in 2017 there has never been a safer time to have a baby. Getting here has involved several false starts, many dead ends, and a great deal of chance together with some good science, but most importantly the recognition that healthcare policies are far too important to leave to politicians. My talk will tell this story, and explain how our new ideas take us in unexpected directions…