Colorado Fetal Care Center 2017 Overview and Outcomes CIMFH_160133591_2017-07_CFCC 2017 Overview and Out | Page 28

PATIENT EXPERIENCE
LEVEL IV
Neonatology
We care for any condition that might affect a newborn, regardless
of how rare or critical. We care for their families, too. To help them
through this stressful time, our providers round daily at each baby’s
bedside and offer parents 24-hour access to their baby in a setting as
close as it can feel to home.
Named one of the country’s top centers by U.S. News & World Report,
our Level IV neonatal intensive care unit offers the highest level of
care to nearly 1,200 newborns per year — one of the highest patient
volumes in the nation. With the growth of our fetal care team, the
complexity and acuity of our patients continues to increase, but our
outcomes remain above the standard.
Advancing the field
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(highest level of care)
1 of 11 recognized centers worldwide
The ONLY center in the intermountain west
to receive this level of designation
The ONLY pediatric center in Colorado to be
recognized on any level
TYPE OF SURGERIES
Breakdown by Organ System
• ECMO heart-lung bypass
Among our achievements:
• Leaders defining surfactant replacement for premature babies’ lungs
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Salem was scheduled for a C-section, but her water broke early and Evelyn arrived at 35 weeks.
Complicating matters, the sac holding her organs ruptured, which meant she needed surgery
immediately to put her organs back into her body.
“She was born with all her organs on the outside because her personality was too big to fit them
all inside,” Salem jokes.
Still, Evelyn blossomed. Without having to work so hard to breathe, she developed a playful
personality and an easy smile.
• Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis for renal failure or severe
metabolic diseases
• Early adopters of brain and body cooling in perinatal brain injury
The Steppigs met with several fetal experts, including Kenneth Liechty,
MD, co-director of the Colorado Fetal Care Center, and Michael Zaretsky, MD, Medical Director
of the Maternal Fetal Care Unit, who reassured them they were in good hands.
Evelyn went on to have seven surgeries within three weeks to enclose her organs. Even after
they were placed inside her midsection, there wasn’t enough room for her lungs to easily
develop. The day before Thanksgiving, she went back into the operating room to be fitted with a
tracheotomy to help her breathe more easily.
• High-frequency oscillatory vent ilation for severe respiratory failure
• Innovators in the development of optimal nutritional strategies for
low birth weight babies
Evelyn Steppig spent the first eight months of her life at Children’s
Hospital Colorado, seven of them in the neonatal intensive care unit.
An ultrasound detected a fetal anomaly when Salem Steppig,
Evelyn’s mom, was just 13 weeks pregnant. At 16 weeks, after more
tests, doctors discovered that the baby had a large omphalocele,
a condition in which her bowels, liver and part of her stomach were
growing in a sac on the outside of her body.
We offer the most innovative technologies in neonatal medicine, including:
• Pioneers of inhaled nitric oxide therapy for pulmonary hypertension
Born with Omphalocele,
Evelyn Steppig Blossoms
57.19%
14.54%
7.43%
5.65%
3.07%
4.85%
2.26%
1.45%
1.45%
0.48%
1.62%
Abdominal and GI
Thoracic Non-Cardiac
Genitourinary
Airway
Head and Neck
Central Nervous System
PDA Ligation
Skin and Soft Tissue
Open Heart or Vascular
Musculoskeletal System
Diagnostic or interventional
cardiac catheterization
As Evelyn continues to grow, there will be more space for her organs to develop at a more
typical pace. She will have spinal surgery for her scoliosis, which also developed before birth,
along with the removal of her trach, around 2 years of age.
“Hopefully, by the time she’s 3 years old, you’ll never be able to tell that any of this had ever
happened,” Salem says.
The Steppig family credits the doctors, nurses and staff in the NICU with keeping Evelyn alive,
healthy and happy. “They loved our daughter like she was their daughter,” says Salem. “You
don’t realize how much you need this hospital until you actually need it. We are so lucky to have
this in our backyard.”
Colorado Fetal Care Center 2017
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