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12 at-risk babies transported via mobile NICU units
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Eight-day-old Nathaniel Jack Watson, son of Rebecca Watson and Brian Brunk, made the trip Monday from Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s neonatal intensive-care unit at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown to the new unit at St. Elizabeth Boardman.
BOARDMAN
Eight-day-old Nathaniel Jack Watson was one of the first pair of babies to make the trip from Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s neonatal intensive-care unit at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown to the unit’s new digs at St. Elizabeth Boardman.
The months of planning the move Monday apparently paid off: Nathaniel slept the entire nine-mile trip, said his beaming parents, Rebecca Watson and Brian Brunk.
Rebecca and Brian, both area U.S. Postal Service employees, had the option of riding inside the mobile neonatal intensive-care unit with their son but chose instead to follow from Youngstown to Boardman in their own vehicle.
“We were excited, but the hospital staff reassured us and made us feel very comfortable,” Brian said.
“The only thing I was worried about were the other drivers,” Rebecca said.
Nathaniel, who was born just two weeks early but had a low birthweight of 4 pounds, 12 ounces, is one of 12 babies, including a set of twins, transferred without incident to Akron Children’s new NICU at St. Elizabeth Boardman.
Akron Children’s NICU, formerly located in St. Elizabeth Youngstown, is now located in St. Elizabeth Boardman facilities dedicated to Akron Children’s — not in Akron Children’s Beeghly Campus, also in Boardman, which houses a step-down unit with lower level of care.
“The staff made us feel like family, and even had a sign in the room welcoming Nathaniel. We feel privileged to be the end of an era of [Akron Children’s at St. Elizabeth Youngstown] and one of the first here [Akron Children’s at St. Elizabeth Boardman],” Brian said.
Akron Children’s NICU, on the second floor of St. Elizabeth Boardman’s new patient tower, has 23 rooms equipped to enable parents to stay with their babies. Adjoining rooms can be opened for multiples, and there are two larger rooms that can accommodate twins.
Also on Monday, St. Elizabeth Health Center Maternity Services was moved from Youngstown to its new Boardman patient tower.
The new accommodation includes drop-off parking for women in labor next to a 24-hour dedicated entrance where an elevator takes them to the labor and delivery unit.
In addition to 14 labor and delivery suites, the third-floor labor and delivery unit has 33 private postpartum rooms for mothers and their babies.
The patient tower is part of a $203 million expansion in new construction and equipment at the St. Elizabeth system’s three hospitals, according to a news release from Humility of Mary Health Partners, parents of the St. Elizabeth system.