October 29, 2001
TENDER MERCIES: Hillcrest helps special needs babies
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WACO--Morgan and Taylor, beautiful blond 3-year-olds, are the picture of health. But they haven't always been.
___Born at least five weeks premature, the twins each weighed three pounds, 10 ounces at birth, said their mother, Jennifer Crosslin. One had serious heart problems.
DORIS TAYLOR, a licensed vocational nurse, feeds one of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco.
___"It was pretty rough for the first couple of weeks," said their dad, Troy Crosslin. "You just didn't know how it's all going to turn out."
___In their case, it turned out well--in part because of the care they received at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, a Baptist General Convention of Texas institution.
___TheCrosslins were among hundreds of people who attended a "birthday party" recently at the Waco Convention Center. Every year, children who spent their earliest days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Hillcrest come together, with their parents, for a reunion with hospital staff.
Brenda Aycock worships God through her work at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.
___"You become attached to them," Crosslin said of the bonds that are formed between parents of intensive care infants and hospital staff. "They're the ones taking care of your children every night when you go home."
___Hearts are touched in the neonatal intensive care unit. Tiny children occupy the "beds"--high-tech contraptions sprouting tubes and giving light. But there also is the softer side, as workers gently handle the tender children--examining, treating, feeding and just cuddling.
___This is not a place where new parents expect to find themselves and their children.
___"Having babies in here always catches parents off guard," said Brenda Aycock, a registered nurse working in the unit. "It's one of those health care situations that is just so unexpected."
___Added Medical Director Darrell Wheeler, "Most people are pretty scared when they walk back there" and see the babies hooked up to the monitors and life-sustaining equipment.
___More than 3,000 babies are born at Hillcrest every year. At least 10 percent of those spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Some are children who develop health problems in the first months of life, but most are there because they were born prematurely.
___Anything less than 37 weeks of gestation is considered premature, Wheeler said. But most of the children born at 35 to 37 weeks go to the regular nursery at Hillcrest.
DARRELL WHEELER, medical director of the unit, examines an infant.
___There is no typical neonatal intensive care patient, but many fit into the category of 29 to 32 weeks gestation with lung problems, the director said. The youngest cared for there was born at 22 to 23 weeks and weighed about 1 pound.
___"They've all got their special problems," Wheeler explained.
___The average stay in the unit is a week or two, with the tiny preemies staying for months, Wheeler said. "We almost always get them out before their due date."
___But, "we do have kids who don't make it," he added.
___"When a baby dies, it's just hard," said Chaplain Pat Wilgis-Patton. "The whole family is torn up, and you've got to be a non-anxious presence."
___The chances of infants "making it" in Waco have gone up drastically in the past 11 years. Prior to July 4, 1990, the city had no neonatal intensive care unit in either of its two major hospitals. Hillcrest brought in Wheeler to start the unit. Hillcrest remains the only place providing that level of care in town.
___"Physically, it's hard being the only neonatalogist," the doctor said. But there are rewards.
___At his son's recent football game, an elementary school cheerleader was pointed out to him. She had been one of his patients, clinging to life with the help of a ventilator. Today, "she's just as normal as she can be," Wheeler said.
___In a town of 107,000 people, Wheeler can hardly go anywhere without being approached by the parents of a former patient. "I feel bad I can't remember all of them," he said.
___While he's the only neonatalogist, he doesn't do the work by himself. Specially trained nurses, therapists, social workers and chaplains are needed.
___"Even housekeeping is very important," the doctor said, explaining that the skill exhibited by all staff members enables him to "concentrate on the baby."
___Shelly Meyer, mother of twins born last year at 26 weeks gestation and weighing about 2 pounds each, praised Wheeler and the staff. "Dr. Wheeler has to tell you bad stuff, which is hard to hear," she said. "He's telling you stuff for a reason. We love him. And the nurses just walked us through it, and they were a source of strength."
___Working in the neonatal intensive care unit is both challenging and stimulating, Aycock said. "To be able to be at the bedside and care for the patient and care for the family is just very rewarding.
___"It's very much a high blessing to be able to have a profession that you can offer so much to people who find themselves in a very compromised and hurting and needy circumstance."
___The care these babies and families receive touches both the physical and the spiritual.
___A small piece of paper is attached to each bed. On the paper is printed a prayer found in a book and adapted by Chaplain Wilgis-Patton, a member of Tokio Baptist Church in West.
___The chaplain said she enjoys the "freedom to share" Christ at the Baptist hospital. "It's a privilege and an honor to minister to people of all faiths and to see missions dollars at work."
___The BGCT budgeted $215,000 for Hillcrest in 2001, although actual contributions will be lower due to reduced giving from churches.
___"I know the Baptist General Convention of Texas funds us, and it makes you proud," Wilgis-Patton said.
___As recipients of care from Hillcrest, Meyer and her husband also appreciate the gift of Texas Baptists. The Meyers are members of Woodway First Baptist Church.
___"The fact that they had that service at this hospital so close to us was a godsend," Meyer said, "because we never would have made it" if repeated trips to an out-of-town hospital had been necessary. "It would have torn us apart."
___At the recent birthday party, several activities were offered to excite the children. But the adults didn't need to be entertained. Parents wanted to reconnect with the hospital staff members who helped them through tough times; and the hospital workers were eager to get updates on the children, to "see the fruits of our labor," said nurse Andy Ortiz.
___All the staff can't attend the party, though, because there are new patients to be cared for at the hospital.
___Some day, those children, too, will attend the birthday party. And that makes the work worthwhile.
___"Each baby has a special place in our hearts," Ortiz said.
___Wheeler seemed to speak for others on the staff when he said: "It's not just a job. You know you're making a difference in a community."
___
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