Print |
E-mail to a friend
NEWS BRIEFS
Ohio hospital praised for premature baby survival
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A high survival rate of extremely premature babies at a Columbus hospital is drawing attention from other hospitals in the country and praise in a national medical journal.
Doctors say that nearly 90 percent of babies born before 27 weeks gestation — the smallest, sickest infants — are surviving at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that other recent studies have shown survival rates anywhere between 39 and 70 percent at other hospitals.
Doctors at the Nationwide Children’s credit their success to an 8-year-old small baby program standardizing care for premature babies and setting up specific protocols designed to help their survival.
Those protocols include limiting medical care that could harm the tiny babies’ delicate skin and increase the risk of infection and other complications.
