Teacher, Students Give Back to Saint Francis NICU

Brandie Maddox, a 10th-grade teacher at Sikeston High School, and her students donated short- and long-term items for families with infants in Saint Francis Medical Center's Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

The gifts included toiletries, 20 handmade blankets, infant socks, snacks and other items useful to Level III NICU families. Maddox's son, Mason, was a patient in the Level III NICU, and she and her students wanted to help other families in the same situation. Maddox says the students started working on the gifts in November, spending one day a week on them. In December, they worked two days a week at school and some even worked on the blankets at home. Total value of the donation was more than $500.

Saint Francis Medical Center's Level III NICU, located in the Family BirthPlace, is the region's first such unit providing lifesaving care to premature and critically ill newborns. The Level III NICU features three fellowship-trained neonatologists supported by the area's only full-time perinatology service and an expert staff of neonatal nurse practitioners, registered nurses, developmental therapists, and other specialists trained to detect and avert problems associated with high-risk pregnancies and deliveries. The Level III NICU is one of more than 800 NICUs participating in the Vermont Oxford Network, an international network of NICUs, with demonstrated above-average outcomes. Saint Francis is proud to be the only employer in Missouri ranked on Modern Healthcare magazine's Best Places to Work in Healthcare list for three consecutive years -- 2008-2010. Saint Francis is also ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation for outstanding patient experience by HealthGrades® in 2009/2010.