The Henry Zarrow Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Provides
The Highest Level of Care for Newborns in Eastern Oklahoma The Henry Zarrow Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis is one of only two Level IV NICUs in the state, and the only one in Tulsa. Level IV is the highest rating by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s not just the level of clinical care that makes this NICU so special; it’s the extraordinary level of planning and effort that went into creating this state-of-the-art, family-focused facility. “What distinguishes our NICU is the breadth of surgical and subspecialty services we offer,” says Raymond Sanders, M.D., medical director. “Plus, we have an outstanding transport program with our mobile NICU, and we’re the only facility in Eastern Oklahoma that offers neonatal/pediatric ECMO.” ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, is a life-saving procedure for infants with heart and lung failure. “ECMO is essentially heart-lung bypass,” says Rachel Everette, M.D., who oversees the NICU’s transport, clinical outreach and ECMO programs. “It provides oxygenation and 16
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ventilation for a critically ill baby until their lung and cardiac function has sufficiently recovered.”
Tulsa’s first NICU. Both board-certified neonatologists, Dr. Everette and Dr. Sanders joined the staff of The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis in 2007, when the NICU was still in its original location, next to Saint Francis Hospital’s labor and delivery department. When it opened in 1978, it was known as Eastern Oklahoma Perinatal Center (EOPC), and was Tulsa’s very first NICU. “The original NICU was outstanding,” says Dr. Sanders. “However, it was a big, open and rather noisy place. With the building of the new children’s hospital in 2008, we had an opportunity to create the region’s premier NICU.”