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About our charity and what we stand for
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How a state-of-the-art jet ventilator is transforming cancer treatment for local patients
Thanks to a generous donation by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire Freemasons, a new jet ventilator has been funded for Gloucestershire Hospitals
This innovative technology is used during a type of cancer treatment called thermal tumour ablation. This involves insertion of probes into the tumour which deliver a precise amount of energy to destroy the tumour. This can be done with heat using microwave energy or freezing using cryo probes. The key to this procedure is precise probe placement to ensure the tumour is adequately treated whilst avoiding damage to healthy tissue and surrounding structures.
As this procedure is performed under general anaesthetic, when the patient is on a conventional ventilator, their organs moves up and down with respiration. This can create challenges with not only the precise placement of needles, but also movement of the structures in and out of the scan field.
With a jet ventilator, the gases move in and out of the lungs by oscillation of the air up to 600 times a minute, without moving the diaphragm nearly as much. This means that the patient’s organs can be kept still which makes targeting the tumours more accurate. This type of treatment is currently offered for tumours in the liver and kidney, with plans to expand into the treatment of lung tumours in the future.
“The jet ventilator allows for the treatment of difficult tumours more accurately, increasing our confidence to treat challenging lesions. This increases the numbers of patients we can offer curative or life prolonging cancer treatments to. It also brings the patients of Gloucestershire the standard of care offered in major teaching hospitals without having to travel.”
Guy Hickson, Consultant Interventional Radiologist
Tim Henderson-Ross, the Head of the 2,500 Freemasons in Gloucestershire, said “It is wonderful for us to see that our fundraising can unlock a whole new set of treatments with this machine. When raising this money, we hoped that it would help as many of the citizens of Gloucestershire as possible. The great team under the leadership of Guy Hickson is doing just that and we could not be more pleased.”
The hospitals have already benefited from the fantastic fundraising of the Provincial Grand Lodge with a £100,000 mobile digital x-ray machine.
Karen Organ, Partnerships Manager said, “It has been such a fantastic and rewarding experience working with everyone at Gloucestershire Freemasons. The specialist equipment they have funded will help to provide faster diagnosis and treatment for people of all ages; from newborns to our oldest patients. We couldn’t be more grateful for their support and hope to continue working together to make a real difference for our community.”
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Gloucestershire Freemasons for their incredible support of our local NHS hospitals. You can read more about their fundraising at our news page.
Making hospital life better
