BY TRACEY DUGUAY
Three weeks have passed since Maria Cimino touched or spoke to her tiny, premature daughter Julia.
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New father Guerino Cimino holds his tiny daughter Julia, who only weighed one pound, eight ounces at birth. Julia?s temporary new home is an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit at Women?s College Hospital in Toronto. |
The mother gave birth to Julia near the end of her sixth month of pregnancy. Julia was born at 27 weeks? gestation (the time spent growing in a mother?s womb from conception to birth), weighing only one pound, eight ounces.
A full term baby is considered to be 38-42 weeks? gestation.
Little Julia also has the distinction of being the first baby to be transferred out of Sudbury since the Sudbury Regional Hospital changed its policy regarding the care it provides through the neonatal intensive care unit.
Up until around the middle of June, all ?preemie? babies were cared for at the hospital unless they required surgical intervention or other complicated medical care.
As of June 18, the new policy at the hospital changed to provide care only for infants born at 32 weeks? gestation and over. Any premature babies born before this time would now be sent to a hospital in Toronto or Ottawa. About 15-20 babies and their families would be affected each year.
Then about a week later, the hospital re-evaluated its position and changed the policy to allow babies born at 29 weeks? gestation to receive care at the local hospital. Estimated numbers indicate about 8-10 families will still be impacted under the revised policy.
Why the change?
According to Diane Belanger-Gardner, director of family and child programs at the hospital, the first policy revision happened quickly because of a sudden change to the medical staff at the neonatal unit.
The hospital lost its only licensed neonatologist, Dr. Karen Dockrill, about a year ago. But the immediacy to rethink the level of neonatal care occurred when another doctor, certified as a neonatologist in the United States, didn?t pass the test needed to get a license to practise in this community. The doctor in question now also plans to leave Sudbury.
?It?s a licensing issue?period, the end. His clinical practise is not what we?re questioning,? Gardner says.
?He?s still here right now, but plans on leaving.?
Local media broke the story about the policy change before the hospital was fully ready to deal with the issue and before they had time to meet with many of the key stakeholders. Gardner says there was consultative process leading up to the first policy change, but after the stakeholders? meeting, another policy change was needed.
?We had a meeting already booked for that week with the major stakeholders ? obstetricians, paediatricians, nurses, and senior management ? to review where we were going and what people were comfortable with. The consensus around the table was that people were comfortable with 29 weeks? [gestation] and up,? Gardner says.
For baby Julia, even the revised policy change wouldn?t have mattered since she was born at 27 weeks? gestation. Her new home for the next month or so is an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit at Women? College Hospital in Toronto.
It was hard for Julia?s parents to deal with the new hospital policy, even more so since other families with premature babies born just days before Julia were allowed to stay at the Sudbury hospital.
The Cimino?s will now spend the next 4-6 weeks commuting between Sudbury and Toronto to see their daughter.
?It was sad because we tried to get them to keep her here, but they couldn?t,? says Cimino.
It was hard staying in the hospital when her baby was taken somewhere else, especially since most mothers get to keep their babies in the room with them. In a way, she says, it almost feels like her baby was born stillborn, even though Cimino knows she will be lucky enough to eventually see and hold her daughter.
?I mean, I know she?s doing great and I know she?s getting the best care, but??
Cimino, who also has a three-year-old son Alex, needs to recover physically before she can travel to Toronto to visit Julia; however, her husband, Guerino, spent the better part of the last few weeks at the Toronto-based hospital with the baby.
?He feels bad when he leaves, but it?s for the best, he had to be there,? the new mother says.
Aside from the emotional factor, Cimino says it?s costing her husband around $400-500 a week to visit their daughter. There are hotel costs, parking, gas, food and long-distance telephone calls to worry about.
The Cimino?s are lucky to have a good support system in place with their extended family who will help them during the next month or so, and enough financial resources to cover the costs, but there aren?t many options in place for families who aren?t this fortunate.
?There are no specific allocations of money for hotels or meals,? explains Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci.
He?s working with the family to see if they qualify for the Northern Health Travel Grant that covers gas money, but other than that, families are on their own.
Bartolucci says the ?real root? of the problem is the provincial government?s lack of direction and financial resources for the hospital.
?This is the dilemma we face...We losing programs, we?re losing professionals, we?re losing highly trained people. We?re losing a sense of direction because the government isn?t intent on providing us with financial resources that will fill the void in the plan. Right now the only void in the plan is the funding commitment by the government. It has a direct impact on what programs are going to be offered, how and when the professionals are going to come and for those who are here, why are they going to stay if they can?t see the long term plan?? Bartolucci asks.
?It?s all interrelated, you can?t look at it piece meal, it?s all the same problem.?
