Sensormedics Neonatal High Frequency Oscillation Ventilator

Baby on respirator. Daily Herald: Jeremy Fraser is more than lucky that he was born July 19, 1988. He’s alive today because of it; and because Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has a new machine called the Sensormedics Neonatal High Frequency Oscillation Ventilator, one of only six in the country. If the tiny russet-haired infant had been born two years or even two months earlier, he probably wouldn’t have lived. His survival is due, in part, to the fund-raising efforts of Ken and Shannon Shepherd who spearheaded efforts through the Central Utah Health Care Foundation to raise the money needed to buy the machine. The Shepherds, along with money donated, raised $18,000 to buy the hospital the oscillator after their son, Mathew died in 1987. Doctors believe the Shepherds’ son might have lived if a high-frequency oscillator had been available in Provo. The nearest oscillator was in Texas where the child was flown, but he was on the machine too late to save his life.