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Show Mom pushes for equipment Second flight for Dru If William Andrew Corry spends any more time in the area, he'll have to take out his pilot's license. Little Dru, already termed i "miracle baby", had another brush with fate when he developed pneumonia and had to be rushed to the University of Utah Medical Center Newborn Intensive Care Unit. His first visit there was immediately after his birth, when he weighed a meager one pound 15 ounces. Mother Joye Corry said this time Dru spent a full two weeks on the respirator at the NBICU. Again, the 13 week-premature week-premature babe was flown to Salt Lake City by special medical transport. Spearhead drive It's these two experiences and others that prompt Mrs. Corry to spearhead a drive to raise funds to purchase special equipment for Valley View Medical Center. The equipment, she said, would not be to set up a new born intensive care unit at the local hospital but to supplement what is already there. "It won't be the purpose of this money to establish an intensive care unit at the hospital," Mrs. Corry, wife of attorney William Kent Corry, said, "but to purchase the equipment for an observation unit until air transport can i arrive." Mrs. Corry said in the two years of I the NBICU's existence at the U of U, 19 local babies have been rushed to Salt Lake City, including one last week. She also said other transports are made to Las Vegas and San Diego. More could use But, she added, the 19 baby figure is I probably deceptive, as many more babies could use the equipment if it were available at VVMC, regardless of whether they were transported or not. "But even if it was used only for one baby a year, Mrs. Corry said, "it would be worth it." As an example of what is needed, the former nurse said, there is no device to measure the blood pressure of a premature infant at VVMC. She also said she would like to see the purchase and use of an Iso-lette, an incubation unit with port-hole type (continued on page 3) I Equipment fund drive (continued from page 1) entries enabling for easy work and observation. She said a thermometer which operates as a skin probe and an infant heart rate monitor, also applied as a skin probe, would be very valuable. Alarm sounds The heart monitor would sound an alarm if the rate went below or above certain levels. There are various sizes and costs of infant heart monitors as described, Mrs. Corry said, but the smaller one would be adequate in an emergency. If the hospital were able to purchase a bigger one later, "fine", she said, "the smaller one could be used for second babies." The equipment to establish an observation ob-servation unit would cost about $2500, Mrs. Corry said. "I've never tried to raise money before," she admits, "so I really don't know how to go about it. "If the equipment were there, it would really help. It would help the whole community and all their babies." Donations, Mrs. Corry said, will go only to the purchase of sepcific pieces of equipment. Closeness to need Mrs. Corry said she has a special closeness for the need for observation equipment' as both times Dru was transported a delay was involved-the Virst time fog.forced an Ogden landing, and the second time, both transport planes were being used. So a third plane had to be manned and put in operation. Little Dru, Mrs. Corry reports, has now developed some complications in the sphincter valves of his stomach. The nearly seven pound baby now has to sleep, after feedings, in a "propped up" position, at an angle to avoid choking. Anyone wishing to donate for the purchase of the equipment can contact Joye Corry at 293 South 400 East. |