Last week, young patients Ruby and Isabella joined BAM Construction to put the finishing touches to essential ground works, marking another milestone in the construction of a new cutting edge operating facility for Leeds Children’s Hospital.

The new facility is a purpose-built cardiac hybrid theatre, for undertaking complex heart procedures on children and young people, and an intraoperative MRI facility for neurosurgery.  The facility has been made possible thanks to the generous donations of patients, their families, and the public through the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund’s ‘Keeping the Beat’ campaign and Leeds Cares.  

 
The new complex is linked directly to the existing theatres in Clarendon Wing and will enable cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to work together during the same procedure which means the skills of both specialists can be employed together, reducing treatment time for patients.



The intra-operative MRI scanner allows scans to be done during neurological surgical procedures. For example, surgeons will be able to see straight away how much of a brain tumour has been removed rather than scanning at a later date to discover that additional procedures may be required. Patients need fewer general anaesthetics, MRI scans and surgical procedures.
 
Ruby and Isabella were on hand this week to ensure that the ground-works were completed in good time and gave their thumbs up to the project.

Carin van Doorn, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon and Clinical Lead for Congenital Cardiac Surgery said: “We are very excited to be one step closer to the completion of this build. The new facility is purpose built and designed specifically for the care of children and young people, which gives us a dedicated space to perform this very complex and specialist surgery.
 
“This new facility wouldn’t be possible without the support of Leeds Cares and the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund who have campaigned tirelessly to raise vital funds and to support us in providing the best possible care.”  
 
Daniel Marsh, Senior Site Manager at BAM Construction, said: “It’s been a complex build but all the hard work is worthwhile when we see children like Ruby and Isabella, who have personally benefitted from the facilities here at Leeds Children’s Hospital. It’s an honour to be providing a state of the art facility to help improve the lives of children from across Yorkshire and Humber.”