The babies, all boys, were delivered by Cesarean section on Friday, Sept. 7 after their mother, Dalia Hemed, initially went to HealthPark Medical Center in Fort Myers only to find that there was no room for the triplets in their neonatal unit.
) |
| PHOTO MICHELLE START David Hemed holding his first-born son. Hemed and his wife Dalia had triplets last Friday at Cape Coral Hospital's new neonatal special care unit. |
"They said that if the babies were born and needed a high level of neonatal care, more than likely they would be shipped out of the area," said 42-year-old David Hemed, the new father. "I guess our doctors and Cape Coral Hospital talked and since they had almost a level II nursery here, they told us if they babies didn't need to be intubated they could be brought here."
As the couple was preparing to deliver at HealthPark, though, doctors decided that Dalia Hemed, 37, was far enough along that she could deliver and recover at Cape Coral Hospital.
Most triplet births only make it to about 32 weeks of gestation, but Dalia Hemed was at 35 weeks. It is a story that would have played out quite differently had Cape Coral Hospital not opened the neonatal special care unit in April.
"In the past, we have been able to do labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum all in one room," said Dr. Lawrence Antonucci, chief administrative officer and the obstetrician who delivered the first baby born at Cape Coral Hospital in 1988. "If the baby required any more care, we would have to transport the baby and the mom to HealthPark. This allows us to take those babies that don't need intensive neonatal care but do need more than just room care. This is a terrific service to the people of Cape Coral. It keeps families together, which is what it is all about."
Now, officials are trying to expand services offered there by purchasing six new cardiac monitors, which will cost about $90,000. The overall cost of the 10-bed nursery was $300,000. It is a part of The Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida, which is one of 11 such hospitals in Florida. It was recognized recently for the level of care provided.
On Saturday, it was filled with half a dozen infants needing special care.
"The triplets were not even our sickest baby delivered on Friday," said Nancy Travis, director of women's services.
As the boys, who had not been named at press time, were being delivered, another baby boy was fighting his way into the world. He was one of the other babies in the neonatal special care unit Saturday morning.
After a stressful, and at times difficult, pregnancy, Dalia Hemed said she was ready to get back to living her life.
Cape Coral residents, the Hemeds had been trying to conceive for four years without success until they underwent in-vitro fertilization and implanted two embryos. One of those embryos split, creating identical twin boys. The twins were born second and third. The boys have some respiratory distress syndrome because they were born prematurely, but the Hemeds are hoping that they outgrow it.
"You worry enough that the babies are going to be OK," said David Hemed. "But, the whole staff here was great." ¦
