University of Virginia Health System

U.VA. NICU CELEBRATES 25 YEARS

The invitation-only event will bring together previous Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients, ranging from infants to adults, as well as current and former nurses and transport staff members. Program highlights include:

• Remarks by Dr. John Kattwinkel, head of the Division of Neonatology and founder of the U.Va. Newborn Emergency Transport System (NETS), along with Pediatrics Chairman Dr. Robert Chevalier and neonatologists Dr. Robert Boyle and Dr. Pamela Griffin, at 12 p.m.

• The 10th anniversary of ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenator), a heart/lung bypass system and the only technology of its kind in the state outside of Richmond.

• Family entertainment by including Morris and sword dancers, face painters, clown, jugglers, storytellers and a variety of musicians.

This event will celebrate all of the babies who wouldn't have lived if they hadn't been helped by the NICU and NETS teams who were on call around the clock, or the ECMO nurse technicians who provide some of the most sensitive care needed at the U.Va. Medical Center, Kattwinkel said.

At U.Va., Kattwinkel was principal investigator for several of the first clinical trials of lung surfactant, a substance naturally produced in the body that helps the lungs expand to breathe. Prematurely born babies lack surfactant, resulting in their most common affliction, respiratory distress syndrome. Kattwinkel tested synthesized surfactant, which is now commonly used to help premature infants breathe normally.

The U.Va. NICU serves approximately 400 patients per year. Communities served include Augusta, Culpeper, Front Royal, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Lynchburg, Norfolk, Warrenton, Winchester and Woodstock, and sometimes rural Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

May 12, 2000