Ten babies flown in wake of Hurricane Harvey
All 10 babies arrived from the NICU at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, US.
Cook Children’s Health Care Systems has reported how 10 babies were flown to Cook Children’s Level IV NICU throughout the evening of 24 August and the early morning of 25 August in response to Hurricane Harvey. All 10 babies arrived from the NICU at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, US, through a transportation effort that involved four planes from three different hospitals – Cook Children’s Teddy Bear Transport, Driscoll Children’s and two aircraft from Children’s Health in Dallas.
The babies were transported throughout the night. It took about 18 hours from the time of the initial phone call from Driscoll to when the last babies arrived at Cook Children’s at 06:30 hrs on 25 August, said Cook Children’s.
“We are so honored and privileged that Driscoll Children’s trusted us to care for their precious patients,” said Nancy Cychol, Chief of Hospital Services at Cook Children’s.” This was an act of remarkable teamwork between Cook Children’s, Children’s Health and Driscoll Children’s Hospital, all in an effort to care for these vulnerable patients and get them out of harm’s way of the hurricane. These are critically ill babies. The transport teams continued the excellent care they were receiving in Corpus Christi and now are settled in our neonatal intensive care unit.”
Because of the complex nature of the patients and the equipment and staff needed in the planes, parents could not travel with their babies and had to arrange their own transportation, said Cook Children’s.
“Because of the extraordinary nature of the hurricane and the transport teams working together, these babies arrived in a dramatic way to our NICU,” said Sheralyn Hartline, director of the NICU at Cook Children’s. “But now that they are here, our NICU staff is very much in their comfort zone of taking care of these babies. This is normal for our team. Our physicians, nurses and everyone who works in the NICU are all prepared and trained for occasions exactly like this one. Every day, they are treating the sickest children with the most difficult and complex diagnoses.”