Neonatal Intensive Care Unit performs modern-day miracles

The nursing staff at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Children’s Hospital Central California watches every move parents Tim and Laura Rapp make as they feed and bathe twins Asher and Mason.

This ritual has been going on for weeks because the Clovis twins were born premature at 26 weeks, weighing 1 pound, 14 ounces and 2 pounds, 1 ounce, respectively. The twins will spend the next few months in the NICU at Children’s Hospital until they are strong enough to go home.

The NICU, the area that handles everything from infections to premature births, is a critical part of the hospital. It’s where the tiniest of patients — and often the sickest — receive care.

Not all preemies are taken to Children’s Hospital, but the facility is better equipped to deal with “micropreemies,” infants that weigh less than 2 pounds.

In the past, parents of the newborns could only be with their sick children during the day. That changed in 2008 when the hospital became the first children’s hospital in the state to offer private rooms in the NICU. There are 21 private and two semiprivate rooms available.

That means Laura has been able to stay with her infants around the clock. Tim, who works in local radio, has taken some vacation to spend time with the babies and uses his lunch breaks to see his sons.

Asher and Mason are the Rapps’ first children. They had anticipated being new parents would be a tough job, but the premature birth of the twins magnified the attention and care the pair have and will need.

“They both have run the gamut of what you can have for being premature,” Laura says as she gives Mason a bath.

“They have had head issues, intestinal issues, heart issues, lung issues. The lung issues are always the biggie when they are born premature.”

Laura praises the work of the Children’s Hospital NICU team for making the process of dealing with the situation much easier.

“I can’t imagine going anywhere else than here because they involve us in everything. When you are first going through this, it is horrible because you don’t get to hold your child. Then they start involving you and you don’t feel so helpless,” Laura says.

Through the work of the hospital’s NICU, Asher and Mason will gain strength and eventually go home. Then there will be more infants needing the specialized care of the unit. The twins are just one of the thousands of stories from the NICU.

“Preemies are the No. 1 diagnosis of the 1,000 children we see each year,” says Beverly Hayden-Pugh, Children’s Hospital’s chief nursing officer.

Children’s Hospital’s NICU has 88 beds; there are an additional 16 beds at satellite hospitals. The difference between the NICU and other areas of the hospital is that the stays generally are much longer. The average stay length in NICU is 20 days, with most preemies staying months.

About 9% of all newborns require care in a NICU.

“This is an extremely specialized practice,” Hayden-Pugh says. “A nurse gets a general degree, but then when they get here, we give them six months of specialty training to work in the NICU.”

This additional training is necessary because of the special care that must be taken, especially with micropreemies. They are so delicate something as simple as changing a diaper can cause brain problems.

Forty years ago, babies that weighed less than 2 pounds had a 5% chance of survival.

Today, the survival rate at Children’s Hospital is almost 87%, which is 6% higher than the national average.

The hospital credits advancements in technology, medical discoveries and the work of a dedicated, specially trained staff.

Ashley Larios knows the work of the NICU very well. When her daughter, Lucy, was born in 2006 at Saint Agnes Medical Center, the infant weighed just over a pound. Doctors believed the baby had only minutes to live.

Larios said she held the limp child in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

In that moment of ultimate grief, Lucy spontaneously began to breathe and move around, much to the surprise of the family and staff.

The team from Children’s Hospital’s NICU then went to work. Lucy, who weighed a mere 1 pound, 3 ounces when she arrived at 23 weeks, was taken to the Madera facility for what would be the start of long hospital stay.

The fact that Lucy is a very active 4-year-old today is amazing to those who saw her nearly lifeless body at birth.

“All I can say is that it was a miracle,” says Larios. “After Lucy started breathing, I actually felt better because I knew she was going to get the best care.”

Larios got to know the Children’s Hospital staff well because Lucy was in the NICU from July 10 to Oct. 21 and the new mom was with her child daily.

Ashley and Lucy continue to be part of the NICU: The pair helped open the hospital’s wing of private NICU rooms, and Larios is part of a committee that assists the hospital in helping current NICU parents.

By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee