Sri Lankan doctors seek emergency medical supplies to save newborns

Sri Lanka’s neonatologists have made a desperate call for urgent medical supplies to treat and save newborns needing emergency care, amid a severe shortage of essentials gripping the country that is battling an unprecedented economic crisis.

“This is a critical message for colleagues overseas.Many things are lacking in our hospital set up, and we pediatricians and neonatologists are especially worried about the shortage of ET Tubes to ventilate newborn babies. In a YouTube message released on Sunday, he appealed to colleagues abroad to dispatch supplies for emergency neonatal care.

“We have come to the stage of reusing ET tubes,” said Dr. Saman Kumara, who is also the President of the Perinatal Society of Sri Lanka, describing the situation as “pathetic”. The disruption in supply of essentials has put Sri Lanka’s enviable public health system in distress, as doctors across the country flag a severe shortage of vital medicines.