I recently had my second child at Meriter. My daughter was born on a Thursday night and appeared to be a healthy, normal newborn.

As we prepared to be discharged the following Saturday morning, my husband and I noticed she seemed to be having seizure-like movements. We raised our concerns to our nurse, Sandy Erby. While Sandy was discussing the discharge teaching-and-learning topics with me, our daughter had another seizure-like episode in her bassinet. Sandy was outstanding and immediately relayed the concern to the hospitalist pediatrician. Within mere moments, our daughter was transferred to the NICU for further evaluation.

I'd read about the new NICU opening a little over a year ago but never imagined "my" child would need it. Who would?

We were so amazed and impressed by the level of care we received, not only from all the birthing center staff on 4 North but also from every member of the NICU staff.

Our daughter underwent an EEG and CT scan hours after being transferred. The peds neurologist who would have been consulted was out of town and a peds neurologist, Dr. Carl Stafstrom, from American Family Children's Hospital, was paged and came to the NICU to review the test results. A plan of care was immediately enacted after both tests were reviewed by him, which stopped any future seizures from occurring.

The networking between Meriter; Melius, Schurr & Cardwell; UW Medical Foundation; and UW Hospital & Clinics staff and attending providers was wonderful to see. (The OB provider who delivered our daughter from Melius, Schurr & Cardwell was on vacation the week after I delivered. Upon her return, she was informed of what had happened and I received a call from her office to check in on us. So appreciated!)

On the following Monday, our daughter had an MRI/MRA and after the results were reviewed, she was discharged that night. The follow-up care with the peds neurologist was arranged between the NICU attending providers and our pediatrician, Dr. Karen Pletta.

While our stay was brief in the NICU (a little more than 48 hours), we were completely amazed at the level of care and compassion we received. Every single member of the staff, from the HUCs to the nurses to the EEG tech to the residents/fellows to the attending physicians and specialists treated our daughter (and us) with the utmost care we could have hoped for.

Our 4-year-old son had a cold and couldn't come in to see our daughter. The facilities in the NICU were wonderful for all of us. From the private patient rooms with a couch and rocking chair to the family area with a TV with a DVD player for him to watch the movies he brought with him to the NUMEROUS books for him to read to the kitchenette and ability to order food to be delivered from the cafeteria to the computers with internet access... we felt that the NICU amenities were superb and helped to allow my husband and I to focus on our daughter and the care she needed.

All of the staff were truly phenomenal and delivered the utmost care to the four of us, and our family members and friends who visited during our stay.

We can't thank all of them enough for the care they delivered to our daughter which allowed us to bring her home so quickly.

Thank you,
Eric & Heather