THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editoial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The small band of women who established The King's Daughters charity in Norfolk a century ago hired a nurse to treat poor children.
That nurse, no less than her religiously motivated sponsors, would be amazed at the handsome enlarged hospital that is the latest fruit of their ministry. They were gratified when their efforts to aid poor children produced a clinic that treated thousands of young patients yearly in the 1930s.
Not until the 1960s was there a full-fledged Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. It quickly gained fame for the superb quality of its medical care and the loving concern for children and their families - manifested by the medical staff, administrators and other personnel and supporters within and beyond The King's Daughters circles.
Children's Hospital's status as Virginia's only full-service pediatric hospital and its international reputation for healing were secure before the recent expansion formally celebrated last weekend.
The multimillion-dollar enlargement enhances the hospital's capacity for healing the sickest and most damaged of children, starting with the tiniest: prematurely born infants who would not survive but for the wizardry of the busy neonatal intensive-care unit, where 20 beds have been added.
Helping the prematurely born survive is extremely expensive. The bigger and improved Children's Hospital is licensed for 186 beds, nearly a third in the neonatal unit. Speaking at last week's dedication event, renowned Boston-based pediatrician and child-rearing specialist T. Berry Brazelton stressed the need to diminish the likelihood of premature births by promoting healthy pregnancies.
Preventing disease and injury is high on Children's Hospital's list. Many of its patients are in serious or critical condition because of their mothers' unhealthy pregnancies, often linked to substance abuse and nutritional deficiencies, or because they have not been immunized, have not been been strapped into car seats or have not worn safety gear when riding bicycles or skateboards.
The new Children's Hospital includes the region's first emergency room equipped and staffed to care solely for children. The hospital's outpatient-care facilities will accommodate a fast-growing ambulatory case load.
By any standard, Children's Hospital is an awesome community achievement. The first King's Daughters band might think it miraculous. It is. by CNB