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Creating Hope

Local mom gives back to Scottsdale NICU that saved her, twins' lives

High Tea event raises funds for hospital emergency pediatric unit

Posted 9/2/20

When life’s first moments are the hardest — a sentiment nearly all parents sympathize with — being in the hands of a qualified neonatal intensive care unit gives Scottsdale’s …

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Creating Hope

Local mom gives back to Scottsdale NICU that saved her, twins' lives

High Tea event raises funds for hospital emergency pediatric unit

Posted

When life’s first moments are the hardest — a sentiment nearly all parents sympathize with — being in the hands of a qualified neonatal intensive care unit gives Scottsdale’s babies a fighting chance.

The neonatal ICU at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center is the only one in the northeast Valley with a Level III designation, the highest possible in Arizona. As a Level III NICU, the department provides advanced care for newborns of any gestational age.

The facility has cared for babies as small as 1.01 pounds at 25 weeks gestation and as young as 24 weeks gestation at 1.5 pounds, according to the hospital.

Ten years ago, HonorHealth’s NICU services saved Stacy Lovell’s twins’ lives when they were born at 28 weeks gestation, all while she was fighting for her own life.

Forever grateful for the services provided at the Scottsdale hospital, Ms. Lovell started the High Tea fundraiser three years ago. Last year’s event raised more than $46,000. Funds from Ms. Lovell’s tea were used to purchase much-needed equipment not budgeted for in the year. Most funds were direct towards the purchase of an EEG machine that monitors brain activity in an infant that may be having seizures or other neurological issues.

“Everybody knows somebody that had a NICU baby, whether it was a family member, a dear friend, a neighbor — there was such a need in the community for this event,” said Ms. Lovell of the High Tea’s success.

“Everyone was so on board with wanting to make a difference to these little babies that come into the world premature or are born even full term and end up in the NICU because they have pneumonia, or have a heart condition.”

The third annual High Tea fundraiser will be virtual this year — although the need remains the same — 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, during NICU Awareness Month.

No pregnant woman expects her baby to wind up in the NICU, but every year 10% to 15% of babies born in the U.S. — roughly half a million — do for reasons including prematurity (born before 37 weeks gestation), heart problems, birth defects, breathing irregularities and infections, among others.

One in eight babies born in the U.S. are pre-term, making that the top reason babies are admitted to the NICU, according to Parenting.com.

Serving a need

At HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea, between 400 and 425 babies are served in the NICU each year, says Mary Luster, director of senior clinical nursing with the pediatric intensive care unit.

The department houses 28 beds, but it can grow to accommodate the need, Ms. Luster explained.

The NICU relies heavily on funds raised by the foundation or donated by families, Ms. Luster says, noting how exciting it was to receive money from the High Tea.

“Everybody is always fighting for dollars because everyone thinks their project, their piece of equipment, is the most important,” Ms. Luster said. “Priority wise, sometimes we’re lower on the priority list just because of the fact that somebody else needs something at a much higher level than what we do. We rely on those heavily to get the technology, get the equipment.”

Ms. Luster says the donations go to items greater than $5,000.

Using the funds raised the first two years of the tea, the NICU department is currently preparing to purchase an EEG machine.

“That will be something we wouldn’t be able to get — we would have to wait until we apply for capital funds, and hopefully it got approved. This way we keep babies with neurological issues within our organization instead of having to separate the mom and the baby and send them to another facility where they would have those neurology services,” Ms. Luster said.

Hope in the darkest hours

In February 2010, Ms. Lovell was six months pregnant with twins. She was having a healthy and incident-free pregnancy — until she developed a 104.9-degree fever while 28 weeks pregnant.

She also had a toddler at home, her oldest daughter.

Ms. Lovell was placed in the hospital’s ICU in critical condition with a case of septic pneumonia that was in her lungs and her blood.

“My condition continued to worsen, and before long I was unable to breathe on my own, necessitating intubation and an induced coma,” she said. “At this point it was obvious that my twins were in grave jeopardy, as was I.”

The babies’ lungs were not developed enough to give them a fighting chance of survival if born at 28 weeks.

The doctors began giving the unborn babies steroids, in hopes of speeding their lung development before an emergency delivery.

While Ms. Lovell was in a coma, over the next 36 hours the two baby hearts were monitored. In the middle of the second night, son Brandon’s heart rate began to dip suddenly, giving a sign that it was time for the babies to be delivered.

“A team of 17 HonorHealth professionals awaited us in the OR to deliver the babies and work to save all of our lives,” said Ms. Lovell.

The team included a delivery team, a post-delivery care team, and a team to try and save Ms. Lovell’s life.

The mom says while talking to her husband, Mike, the medical team provided hope in the Lovells’ darkest hours.

“Without further ado, we welcomed our twins into the world fast, furious, and with a fight for survival. Brandon and Aubrey weighed about 3 pounds each. They needed intubation, oxygen and feeding tubes. Brandon and Aubrey followed alongside HonorHealth fighting for their lives and yet couldn’t even open their eyes,” she said.

When Ms. Lovell woke up five days after the babies’ birth, her pregnant belly was gone.

In its place, was a hospital room decorated with pictures of her babies by nurse Ann DiChiara, who took care of the Lovells during their stay at HonorHealth for three weeks.

“The NICU would become literally our home and new normal for the next eight weeks,” Ms. Lovell said. “My twins survived and thrived thanks to HonorHealth NICU.”

High Tea 2020

Preparing for the event’s third year, Ms. Lovell is thrilled with how many people want to help the little babies.

When Ms. Lovell first predicted she could raise $5,000 for the NICU at the first High Tea, she exceeded her expectations with more than 100 people attending.

“Now it has evolved — despite COVID, there are still babies being born in the NICU, and the need is greater than ever,” Ms. Lovell said.

“I’m just beyond overjoyed at how our community has rallied and gotten on board.”

The featured family for the September fundraiser is AJ and Kate Pollock. AJ played for the Arizona Diamondbacks but is now an outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kate had her baby, Maddi, at 24 weeks at HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea and she weighed 1 pound 6 ounces.

“To have Kate & AJ Pollack — their baby was in the NICU for 128 days. They are backing the event, and supporting it, because they were here on spring training, and her water broke at 24 weeks. Her little baby was born, literally the size of a baseball at 1.6 pounds,” Ms. Lovell said.

“They’ve been super supportive of this event.”

In addition to the EEG machine purchased, the 2018 and 2019 funds from the High Tea event were used to buy a new camera for nurses to take photos of the preemies, as well as a new lens that was needed for the nurse who handled bereavement cases.

This year, the goal is to raise $60,000 to purchase a new CFM Brainz Monitor, which would record seizures for preemies who are requiring whole body cooling.

The technology allows babies to stay at HonorHealth NICU, versus being moved to children's hospitals.

To register, go to aesaz.co/elp/nicu2020.