Santa Maria’s Jane Rooney knows the life-or-death impact of having a neonatal intensive care unit close to home. In 1982, Rooney and her newborn daughter Caitlin were rushed via ambulance to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.
Born four weeks early, Caitlin’s lungs wouldn’t inflate, and the closest unit—often referred to as a NICU—was more than 30 minutes away. Luckily, the transport went well and Caitlin thrived. Rooney considered the difficult delivery a fluke. But in 1986, she was rushed once again out of the area—this time to receive emergency care for her son Jake.
“He was born blue and he coded,” Rooney recalled at an event at Marian Medical Center on Dec. 16. Currently a member of the Marian Foundation Board, Rooney was asked to share her story at the grand opening of the hospital’s new eight-bed NICU.
“I’d just given birth, and I had to jump into the back of an ambulance,” she continued. This time, the family had to travel all the way to Tarzana, near Los Angeles, to get help. Today, both of the children are healthy and happy. But Rooney still remembers what a trying time it was for everyone.
“First of all, to give birth, and then to
not have it go well, and then to be out of town in a strange place away from your friends and family—it’s extremely difficult,” she recalled.
Marian’s new NICU, she said, will give families with at-risk newborns “a sense of being at home with familiar faces and
community” while dealing with stressful situations.
It will also give them immediate access to life-saving technology and care, such as incubators, infant heart monitors and IV drips, and heating lamps.
“Any baby born preterm will be able to stay in Santa Maria instead of being transferred out [for emergency care],” said Mary Richards, a neonatal specialist nurse and lead nurse at Marian’s NICU.
Now instead of driving or being airlifted to another hospital, Santa Maria’s sick infants can stay close to home, Richards said.
Giving birth always creates room for complications. According to information provided by the hospital, approximately 10 to 15 percent of babies born in the United States need intensive care.
Janet Corcoran, Marian’s vice president of Mission Services, said that need is apparent in Santa Maria.
“I’ve been into the homes and seen the babies sleeping in cardboard boxes and sleeping on the floor, sleeping on cots in the garage in the cold of winter,” she said during an invocation at the ceremony. “I’ve seen a lot of sad situations. So this NICU is such a blessing for the people of Santa Maria.”
And, if everything goes as planned, Marian will be able to offer even more NICU beds in the future.
Dr. Eddie Alderete, a neonatal specialist, said the current eight-bed facility is meant to serve as a bridge to a larger 21-bed facility in the new hospital.
“[This NICU] is critical because without this, we can’t get licensed, and without a license we can’t care for sick babies,” he said. “Without it, we’d move into the new hospital without a license and an empty NICU. This way we’re able to hit the
ground running.”
The new NICU is currently treating patients. The 21-bed facility will open along with the new hospital sometime in 2012.
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 23-30, 2010.