Musgrove Park Children’s Unit receives £70k donation

Children at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton will benefit from a new state of the art scanner, thanks to the hospital’s League of Friends. The new £70,000 Echocardiogram/Ultrasound Scan will provide the Paediatric Department at Musgrove with the facilities to perform heart scanning on children of all ages. This includes infants and even premature babies who can also have brain scanning done using this machine.

The technology can also be linked to other hospitals to allow for greater communication between clinicians across the region.

Consultant Paediatrician Dr Talal Farha who has a special interest in paediatric cardiology said, “We are extremely grateful to the League of Friends for their efforts to provide us with the funds needed to purchase this technology. Without a doubt this will be of benefit for all children of Somerset. We have already started using the new scanner and we currently scan an average of 50-60 children each month.”

Margaret Pegge, Chairman of the League of Friends said “We are very grateful to everyone who helps the League of Friends – the money that we collect makes a direct and powerful difference to the care that is offered to patients at Musgrove Park. 2009 is the Leagues 50th Anniversary and we hope many more people will join us in our work.”

The attached picture shows Dr Farha and Mrs Pegge, with Alice Da Costa the first patient to be scanned with the machine.