Kansas City,
19
September
2017
|
10:50 AM
America/Chicago

Public News Service: Children's Mercy Emblematic of Advances in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

It's only been five years since the American Academy of Pediatrics created the level four designation of neonatal intensive care units. 

Known as NICUs, they are facilities that treat the smallest and most critically ill babies. 

Neonatology has only been recognized as a profession since 1960. But Children's Mercy Kansas City – the only level four NICU in the region – is demonstrating how much can be accomplished when a band of specialists with a passion for treating newborns is brought together. 

Children's Mercy Director of Neonatology, Dr. Howard Kilbride, says premature birth was, for many years, the single biggest threat to babies. 

"That, no longer, is the primary cause of death in babies that we're seeing,” he states. It's close, but congenital anomalies or birth differences make up probably the leading cause of neonatal deaths now for us."

Research shows a 2.2-pound baby born in 1960 had a mortality risk of 95 percent. Today the probability of survival for that same 1 kilogram newborn is 95 percent. 

Kilbride says his hospital’s NICU has 80 beds and 300 bedside nurses who are specialized in caring for infants. 

In his five-plus decades of work as a neonatologist, Kilbride acknowledges he's experienced lots of emotional highs and lows with his patients and their families. 

"I am just always in awe at the resilience of the families that we deal with and the ability to be able to cope," he states.

 

Read the full article via Public News Service.

Learn more about the region's only Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Read about the Elizabeth J. Ferrell Fetal Health Center at Children's Mercy which provides integrated maternal-fetal care for selected high-risk pregnancies.