No place for panic: a tribute to the NICU
When you walk into an NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), there are a few things that beg your attention. Ding ding ding, ding ding , coming from any number of rooms at a given time. The numerous bell-like sounds echoing down the hallway, each one a little different. The drum of intentional footsteps of NICU personnel heading briskly to their destination. Phones ringing, the occasional baby's cry, the white noise-like sound of a nasal cannula, the hum of a ventilator, the sound that resembles a steam engine coming from a room where a special ventilator giving 600 breaths a minute is chugging away. Beeping of feeding pumps and IV pumps. To the trained ear, each of these noises means something. You can tell a lot by how quickly the footsteps are coming down the hallway or how frequently the monitor alarms are going off in the room next door. The IV pump that intermittently beeps registers in the back of your mind that the nurse has been administering multiple ...