Our Organization is constantly looking for new ways to support professionals operating in the field of pediatric surgery. It is with this objective in mind that we regularly engage in conversations with our members and with representatives from facilities like Milan’s Policlinic Hospital.

We seek to identify what challenges lie ahead, and how we can contribute to tackling them. The “High Care Area” project was born as a result of conversations of this kind.

A “High Care Area” is a sub-intensive therapy area reserved to children who have undergone long surgical interventions. Currently, in Milan’s Policlinic Hospital, all children who have undergone surgery are transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. This, however, exposes them to several infection risks, despite the facility's extremely strict hygiene protocols. The problem arises from the fact that children, especially those of a very young age, have a much more fragile balance than adults. This makes their hospitalization in an environment shared with others potentially dangerous. In this sense, an area solely dedicated to the recovery of children who have recently undergone surgical procedures would represent a better, safer option.

As soon as we realized the need for an area of this kind within Milan’s Policlinic Hospital, we immediately sought to understand how we could contribute to its creation. We decided to focus our efforts on providing the hospital with the equipment necessary for the correct functioning of the area. This, of course, raised the question of how we could find the funds necessary for the purchase of said equipment. As we were considering our options, we were presented with the opportunity of participating in the “SEA Social Challenge”.

SEA (Società Esercizi Aeroportuali) is a company controlled by Milan’s Municipality; it manages Milan’s two airports, Linate and Malpensa. Their “Social Challenge” initiative was launched in 2015, and it has the main goal of awarding funds to specific projects of no profit organizations in the areas of Milan and Varese, through a competition-style format. You can read more about this initiative and about our participation in the article “Cieli Azzurri and the SEA Social Challenge”.

This charitable competition seemed to be a wonderful vehicle for the launch of our initiative regarding the aforementioned sub-intensive care area, which led to the creation of the “High Care Area” project. In the second edition of this competition, Cieli Azzurri went on to rank amongst the six winners, and was thus awarded with a considerable prize, to use as funds for this project. This prize was then compounded by additional funds, raised through specific initiatives by our members. This allowed us to make, in July 2018, a substantial donation to the Pediatric Surgery Unit of Milan’s Policlinic Hospital. Specifically, the funds raised through this project allowed our organization to donate a highly sophisticated, specialized instrument for monitoring and recording the exams carried out in the Area, as well as a medical closet to be used for the safekeeping of endoscopes.