Not too hot, not too cold; just right

This "one-of-a-kind" blanket doesn't just make patients comfortable - it helps them get better.

Our Emergency Department sometime uses a treatment called "temperature therapy" for patients. To do this, they need a special temperature control blanket. This blanket attaches to a machine that moves warm or cool water through it. The water helps slowly change a patient's body temperature.

A temperature control blanket

It's important for the body to stay at a specific temperature - when the body is too hot or too cold, it can hurt the brain. This kind of brain damage is permanent. It's very important to our care teams to prevent brain damage as much as possible.

If a patient is too cold (hypothermic), the blanket uses warm water to raise their body temperature. This can happen in winter - when people are exposed to very cold temperatures, or if they end up in very cold water. Warming them back up can help stop damage to their heart, lungs and brain.

But sometimes, hypothermia can be good. "Therapeutic hypothermia" is a treatment where cold water is pumped through the blanket to lower the body temperature. This reduces injury and long-term problems. It's sometimes used for people who have a cardiac arrest (when the heart suddenly stops beating).

This temperature control blanket was funded by a grant provided by the J.P. Bickell Foundation, a long-time SAH Foundation partner. The J.P. Bickell Foundation primarily supports health, medical research, arts and culture, social services, the environment, and education in Ontario, and we are grateful for their continued support of health care in our community.  

---

Community support helps our team provide outstanding care!

Give today!