Frankfort Regional Medical Center

Special Care for Our Tiniest Patients With the help of Frankfort Regional Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), babies born prematurely receive life-saving support. Here are the stories of two of those babies—Emmalynn Estes and Jakelyn Hudnall. Jakelyn’s mother, Jennifer, works in Frankfort, but she lives in Georgetown and had been going to a hospital there for her prenatal appointments. On April 15, 2011, at 29 weeks' gestation she had just finished a board meeting at work when she began to bleed profusely. Her colleagues called 911, and in 24 minutes, Jennifer gave birth. “The stars just aligned for the delivery—the emergency staff had just the right people on hand to deliver a baby, and all of them participate in regular drills for emergency births,” Jennifer says. “They told me later that my situation was usually fatal, but even though both Jakelyn and I had lost so much blood, they saved us both.” Emmalynn’s story carries a different type of urgency. Her mother, Hope, was at a garage sale on June 4, 2011, several weeks before her due date, when her water broke. Since both of her older children had arrived after their due dates, she’d only been induced before and hadn’t experienced the natural onset of labor outside of a hospital. “My husband was two hours away, training for deployment with the National Guard, so I drove myself to the hospital,” Hope says. “He made it to Frankfort Regional just before Emmalynn was born, and even though I was so scared, I’m so glad her dad got to spend time with her before he deployed.” Caring for Little Lives Both Emmalynn and Jakelyn spent weeks in Frankfort Regional’s NICU. As part of a community hospital, our NICU provides a more family-oriented experience than is available at larger facilities. Jennifer and Hope had special care times available, giving them opportunities to experience that critical bonding between mothers and their newborns. The staff gave them hotel-like rooms so they could stay in the hospital with their children, even if they were in different rooms. When the girls were in stable health, the mothers received training for taking care of smaller babies. “Any mother experiencing an early delivery wants to know she and her baby are getting optimal care, and the special care of a NICU confirms that,” says Brooke Barnes, MD, neonatologist at Frankfort Regional. “Children like Jakelyn and Emmalynn who are born as early as 28 weeks into pregnancy receive skilled care and personal attention, and when they go home, we follow up regularly to give them a good start in the world.” For more information about our Level II NICU, visit FrankfortRegional.com or call 877-FRMC-MD1 (877-376-2631).

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