BOSTON -- Delivering babies might seem routine for hospitals, but for every 1,000 babies born, one or two will have a brain injury because of a lack of oxygen or blood during the delivery.

Cooling Blankets Can Save Babies

Until recently there wasn't much doctors could do. But, as NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner reported, Children's Hospital in Boston is now giving these families the hope of a normal life.

"This idea has been around for, I think, decades, but it's only newly been studied in babies," said Dr. Anne Hansen, of Boston Children's Hospital.

It's called therapeutic-induced hypothermia. Chilled water flows through plastic tubing into a blanket, cooling an infant's body temperature to 92.3 degrees.

"We have patients who have high fevers for example, who need cooling blankets, so there's nothing special about the cooling blanket itself," Hansen said.

But what is special is that it's now helping babies deprived of oxygen or blood during birth who develop hypoxic ischemic brain injury.

In the past, babies born with HIE faced lifelong disabilities, including poor vision, cerebral palsy, even seizures. There was nothing to protect and heal their brains until now.

"What researchers have found is that the blanket decreases the degree of neurologic injury that babies sustain," Hansen said. "We put the baby on the blanket and it cools the entire baby, including the blood, of course. The blood then flows up into the deep part of the baby's brain and that is what allows the brain to cool down and when it cools down, the metabolism slows down, like a bear who hibernates in the winter. If the brain's metabolism is slower, then when the blood flows back into it and heals it."

Mia Ordway, the newborn daughter of WEEI-AM's Glenn Ordway, is one of only 11 babies to have used the cooling blanket since Children's Hospital got it last summer. Now 4 months old, she's thriving.

"Since we've had this new therapy, we definitely have found that the babies have done much better than we would have expected," Hansen said.

And babies aren't the only ones benefiting. Induced hypothermia could have been crucial to helping Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett recover from his nearly paralyzing spinal cord injury on the football field. He's now walking and talking, something doctors thought might never be possible.

"None of this is extremely sophisticated or very expensive. It's just a new idea," Hansen said.