Page 74 - Southern Oregon Magazine Winter 2020

feature | healthcare for kids
feature | women in wine

CHILDREN’S MIRACLE NETWORK

Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center is one of 170 Children’s Miracle
Network Hospitals in the U.S., having served since 1988. Asante is the
only primary care center for children in Southern Oregon and Northern
California that has a dedicated pediatric department, a NICU, pediat-
ric oncology, and a maternal fetal clinic. The Asante Foundation, the
philanthropic arm of Asante, raises funds and awareness for children’s
health care, from asthma or a broken arm to a two-pound preemie or a
teenager battling cancer. Most of the funding goes to provide things like
equipment, education, staff training, and adequate space. Here are some
examples in the NICU: vein viewer for starting IVs in babies, innovative
bassinets that allow mothers to easily nurse their babies while promoting
safe sleep, new phototherapy equipment for babies born with jaundice,
preemie diapers, and Baby Shusher units to soothe opiate-addicted babies.

Asante’s NICU hosts a yearly Miracle Baby Reunion for preterm babies.
Families, grateful for the unit’s medical and emotional help during a scary
and usually unanticipated time, share stories and visit with nurses amid
smiles and hugs. The kids enjoy games, face painting, and a lollipop tree.

ASSANTE ROGUE REGIONAL

MEDICAL CENTER NICU

“Most parents expect a normal, healthy newborn baby. Having a baby
born early or needing to go to the NICU is traumatizing,” says Michelle
Cathcart, Patient Care Services Manager in the Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU) at Rogue Regional Medical Center (RRMC). The unit
serves premature babies, some as young as 23 weeks, who require extra
monitoring. When these wee ones meet developmental markers such as
breathing and eating on their own, and maintaining adequate body heat,
they can go home.

RRMC has the only NICU between Eugene and Redding. Babies requir-
ing surgery, however, are sent to OHSU in Portland or UC Davis or UC
San Francisco.

Cathcart adds, “Our work is with the baby, but the family is our patient as
well. We provide education, support and encouragement.” Care is given
by neonatologists, as well as the Pediatric Assessment Team—speech
language pathologist, occupational therapist and physical therapist—
who address feeding and physical issues, and initiate needed therapy.
Dedicated, trained nurses are hands-on with their baby patients, as well
as being there for the families.
72 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | winter 2020