Medical treatment that's saved the lives of local newborns who might have died if they had to travel to the Mainland for the specialized care is being expanded in Hawai'i, thanks in part to work done at Kaiser Permanente's Moanalua Medical Center and other hospitals.

Kaiser, along with its partners, yesterday announced an expansion of the life-saving program, which has at its center a heart-lung machine that helps buy time for newborns while they receive care for severe cardiac and lung problems. The program is being expanded to include young children.

The device was built four years ago by doctors at Kaiser as they worked to save a newborn boy's life after unsuccessfully trying to arrange transport for the child to a California hospital that has the machine. Miki Arume, a Kaiser public affairs assistant, said some newborns died before the device was built here because the specialized medical transport planes weren't available in time for flights to California.

The Hawai'i machine was pieced together in October 2003 over a six-hour period by a team of more than 30 Kaiser staff, and played a crucial role in saving a boy's life.

Since then, it's saved other lives and now serves as the focus for a hospital consortium that includes Kaiser, Tripler Army Medical Center, the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children also is part of the group and will be the new home for the heart-lung machine as the program is expanded. Dr. Mark Ogino, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Neonatology director; and Dr. Charles Neal, medical director of Kapi'olani's Newborn Special Care Unit, will oversee the program.

The group will work with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Innovative Medical and Information Technologies Center to provide the treatment for pediatric patients statewide, along with development of state-of-the-art Web-based training courses when it comes to what's known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or support of heart or lung functions in cases of reversible cardiac or respiratory failure.

The group also will work on developing computer-simulated training.

"While our doctors in Pennsylvania and Hawai'i may be thousands of miles apart, we are joined in a common mission of bringing the finest medical research and technology to people in need," said Scott Gilstrap, president of the Pittsburgh center.

Funding for the work has been helped by $7.6 million in grants for Tripler that was secured by Hawai'i Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.