INDIANAPOLIS – At Riley Hospital, caution lights will hover over the snoozing patients at the Children’s neonatal intensive care unit. This device will flash when the sound levels go beyond the normal level. As the decibels go up, the colors on the new monitoring system will automatically change from green to yellow to red, indicating the chatting parents or visitors to keep quiet so that the babies get adequate rest for their growth.
A sound level indicator of the Sonicu system hangs from the ceiling of the neonatal intensive care unit at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Wednesday, March 19, 2008. The unit measures noise and displays a visual representation of measured sound levels. As decibels rise, the colors change from green to yellow to red, hushing chatty parents or doctors so the babies get the rest they need to develop.
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
“A noise which is little bit louder than the normal level can cause the hearts of sick or premature babies to beat slowly or quickly”, said Dr. William Engle at Riley hospital. Disturbing the babies’ sleep or vital signs can slow down their growth and healing because their bodies do most of the work while they sleep.
“The main work of babies is to grow and develop, and in between they eat,” he said.
Preemies could identify their mother’s voice only when there is silence and their brains can understand how to process sound only when the circumstance is quiet, especially during the last trimester before birth.
“It’s certainly a great idea,” said Dr. Bob White, at South Bend’s Memorial Hospital.
New born babies will soon lose the silent effect of the womb before they can process the sound, said White.
“The sounds … come from different sources and from different directions. This gives unpleasant feelings for the baby,” he added.
Inventor Chris Smith believes that this instrument is vital for all hospitals and he has sold his Sonicu system to several Indiana hospitals and wants to extend his sales throughout the country.
Initially Smith had no idea of creating such a device. But when he noticed that his son began to cringe due to bright light in the NICU, he was provoked to design a system to regulate the lighting in NICU.
“Later I understood that there was no way to measure and control the sound, other than the standard, hand-held meter,” he said.
Smith, in association with a sound engineer, tries to develop a sound regulating device. They developed a roof-mounted system of microphones that receives sound and channels data back to a large control panel.
“A lot of labor, wiring, and programming were required,” he said.
Smith had no interest in selling his invention to other hospitals as it took a lot of effort and time.
Then the Riley Hospital, wanted him to make a device for their hospital.
The latest version of Sonicu can regulate both sound and light and it transfers digital data to the computer.
He said that the cost of systems can range from $40,000- $400,000, depending up on the each need of the hospital.
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