Elliot
Hospital to expand care for newborns
Feb. 20, 2003 The Union Leader
SB NOTE: Providing excellent neonatal care is a good cause.
What happens, though, when the baby is sent home? If there is
no money for nursing care and early intervention, the money spent
keeping that baby alive in the neonatal intensive care unit is
wasted.
SB Letter to the U-L
This letter is in response to Sen. Sununu's $400,000 windfall
for Elliot Hospital's expanded and renovated maternity unit and
neonatal intensive care unit (Feb. 20, 2003 A3).
There is obviously a need for high-quality neonatal care. My concern
lies in who will take care of these babies once they are discharged
from the NICU.
My son was at Dartmouth's NICU for four months and was released
on oxygen, a heart monitor and eventually a gastrointestinal tube
for feeding.
Almost all babies in a NICU go home with some complications and
require continued care while at home. The budget crisis is cutting
into the funds available to help these babies continue to get
healthy.
It's only February and already the experts available to help my
son learn to eat have been limited to three visits a YEAR.
One question: why bother saving the babies when there is little
help to make the saving worthwhile?
