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TOP JOBS

By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer

Mother Frances Hospital has raised $1.2 million toward construction of the region’s first neonatal intensive care unit scheduled to open in September, campaign chair Mary Dale Thomas said Wednesday.

The campaign goal rose from $1.3 million to $1.7 million to adjust for rising construction costs, spokesman John Moore said.

Hospital officials announced Wednesday a $10,000 donation was received from Baker Hughes, a Houston-based oil and gas company.

“They have caught the vision,” Thomas said.

Some 80 babies a year are transferred from Mother Frances Hospital to a NICU in Dallas because the region can’t support critical infant patients, said clinical manager and specialized nurse Linda Doyle.

The current nursery can support babies born six weeks early, but the 12-bed NICU will be equipped to care for babies as premature as 28 weeks, or 2.2 pounds.

“It will add quite a bit and keep moms and babies together,” Doyle said.

Moms cannot accompany babies transported to Dallas and it creates a stressful scenario for those first few days after birth, she said.

In February, Tyler-born Dr. Brenda Morris, of Houston, a neonatologist, was named the NICU’s medical director.

She has helped guide recruitment and requested additional clinical equipment, Thomas said.

“Coming from a 90-bed NICU, she knows what we will need here in all situations,” she said.

Dr. Nancy Pusser, a neonatologist, was hired from Santa Barbara to join the team July 1.

Two neonatology nurse practitioners will be hired as well as a handful of specialized nurses, Doyle said.

The New Life Campaign began in September 2007 after hospital leaders discussed the possibility of a NICU for 15 years.

The 12-bed Level IIA NICU will be located on the second floor to replace an existing nursery and unused space and construction has already begun.