Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi - (Page 4)

Special GiftS in Sm NMMC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit gives at-risk babies a strong start J ulee Brown French of Amory, an evening anchor for WLOV news in Tupelo, was preparing for the newscast Dec. 9, 2010, when she realized she hadn’t felt much movement in her pregnant belly all afternoon. “Cayden was always very active, so it was unusual that he wasn’t moving,” says Julee, who went ahead with the newscast but planned to go to the doctor the next morning. She didn’t tell her husband, Curtis, because she didn’t want to alarm him. But little Cayden, who wasn’t due until Feb. 21, 2011, had other plans. At 2:30 the next morning, she woke up Curtis when her water broke. They dropped off their 9-month-old son, Carter, with his grandmother and headed to North Mississippi Medical Center Women’s Hospital in Tupelo. “Within five minutes of getting into the car, I felt a contraction,” Julee says. “I was so afraid about the baby because I had no idea what to expect.” The contractions got harder during the 35-minute drive, and Cayden was born by cesarean section two hours later. “I wasn’t expecting for us to have a baby that day,” says Curtis, who worked as a registered nurse in surgery for 16 years before opening his own insurance agency. “It happened so quickly.” “You try to plan for everything, but you just can’t plan for this,” Julee adds. The FighT oF his LiFe Weighing only 3 pounds, 14 ounces, Cayden was taken immediately to NMMC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where neonatologists (physicians specializing in newborns), nurses and respiratory therapists could give him the specialized care he required. For three days Cayden relied on a ventilator to assist his premature lungs. “The The French family is all smiles, now that both their boys, Cayden and Carter, are living happy, healthy lives. 4 Vim & Vigor • Sum m er 2 012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Big Gifts Come in Small Packages
A Voice of Experience
The Breakfast Club
Arthritis Answers
A TV Guide to Radiology
Take Aim
It Might NOT Be Cancer
Colin Firth
Step Up to the Plate
Life After Cancer
Get Dad to the Doc
Virtual Health
Point, Click, Discover
Ready to Serve
A Unique Kind of Doctor
Barbershop Talk
Catch the Spirit

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2012 - North Mississippi