When a baby from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit needs surgery, every step is critical.

Previously, when one of these babies needed surgery, they had to be transported from the NICU to the operating room across the hospital – a long and sometimes difficult trek that required extra care for our tiny patients.

“The NICU had been challenged to find ways to keep babies with very small birthweights warm while transporting to the main OR, which takes about 15 minutes travel time,” said Pat Brown, manager of Pediatrics. “We would transport the babies in incubators or warmers and had tried different mechanisms to keep a baby warm during transport, such as incubators with batteries, but the battery life is only 10 minutes. We have used warm blankets and warm fluid placed around the baby’s body, but none of these have proven effective. Sometimes surgeries were performed at bedside, due to the fact that the baby is unstable and it would not be safe to take the baby to the main OR.”

To create a safer environment and to ease the minds of already worried parents, TMC opened a special operating room right across the hall from the NICU. This operating room is outfitted with all the state-of-the-art equipment a NICU baby requires during surgery including a specific bed, anesthesia machine, warmer and ventilator.

“It has made such a big difference for these babies and their families,” said pediatric surgeon Catherine Cosentino, M.D. “They go right across the hallway to have their operation and come right back into the NICU. I think families feel better that their baby is just across the hall, and if we have any problems, it’s easy to have a NICU attending physician come in. It’s just a much safer environment for the babies.”

Before Dr. Cosentino performed the first surgery in the new room, TMC chaplains joined nursing staff, physicians and operating room staff for a special blessing.

“To me it was just wonderful,” Dr. Cosentino said. “I cried. I had been such an advocate of having this and it was so nice to see it come to fruition. It was a wonderful part of my career here at TMC.”

--

The TMC Foundation helped fund the NICU Operating Room with Children’s Miracle Network dollars, thanks to the generosity of individual and corporate donors.

The NICU overnight room also received a makeover, giving families a comfortable place to stay without having to leave the hospital.

Dr. Cosentino helped fund the renovation because she believes in the work TMC for Children does for the community.

“I think what we do at TMC is special and I think as a community hospital being able to care for children at the level we do and the quality we do is wonderful,” she said. “I am a big advocate for TMC for Children.”