WK5 DQ1 Question1
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WK5 DQ1 Question1
Since the baby Bianca was born prematurely at 30 weeks, she is probably suffering from respiratory distress syndrome manifested by her signs and symptoms. Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a common health problem for most premature babies, making them survive with extra oxygen to breathe. Such babies are always put under ventilators after birth, as with the case of Bianca. The nurse should figure out what problem Bianca had at birth and what is still causing her problems now that she is almost a year old. Premature babies are always at greater risk of developing RDS compared to infants born normally due to a lack of surfactant in the alveoli (Ho, Subramaniam & Davis, 2015).
The respiratory nurse can respond to the student nurse that Bianca is probably suffering from respiratory distress syndrome because she was born prematurely, which might have escalated to bronchopulmonary dysplasia. She may also continue manifesting symptoms of respiratory complications as she continues to grow older. Surfactant, which is produced from week 28 of gestation, keeps the alveoli cells inflated after production. Lack of surfactant causes RDS since infants are too young to inflate their alveoli (Thompson, Chambers & Liu, 2017). The more premature the child is born, the more the child’s chances of suffering from RDS since the surfactant will be even more insufficient to maintain the ventilation process.
As Bianca gets older, she is likely to experience other respiratory difficulties. Because she was in ventilation for two weeks after birth, mechanical ventilation may have caused bronchopulmonary dysplasia and chronic respiratory insufficiency, which is likely to reoccur in the future. Also, as she gets older, she will be at risk of developing chronic lung disease. Extra oxygen and medicines can be recommended to Bianca to help manage the condition, and the parent must ensure the child takes the medication. Respiratory complications are hard to wipe out completely, especially if acquired at birth, but she should get better as the child grows old.
Reference
Ho, J. J., Subramaniam, P., & Davis, P. G. (2015). Continuous distending pressure for respiratory distress in preterm infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (7) https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd002271
Thompson, B. T., Chambers, R. C., & Liu, K. D. (2017). Acute respiratory distress syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(6), 562-572 https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmra1608077