MEMPHIS, TN - From hand sanitizers to fist bumps, we're all taking extra precautions to avoid getting the swine flu. Hospitals especially have to go the extra mile to care for patients. Premature babies are particularly vulnerable to viruses like H1N1.
At the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, they're taking extra steps to keep out the H1N1 virus by screening every person who walks through those doors.
Stephanie Sartain's baby boy was born 8 weeks early, right in the middle of the swine flu scare.
"There are different things he is more prone to have,” Sartain said. “It does make me a little nervous."
Premature babies like hers fill the Newborn ICU. Their immature immune systems are especially vulnerable.
"If they get a virus or some type of bacterial infection it is very hard for them to fight it,” said Chief Nursing Officer Carol Thetford. “Sometimes they really can't fight it."
So the key is to keep them from getting it. That means keeping the sick people out and screening all visitors.
3 "We have them come in. We do take their temperatures,” Thetford said. “We ask them to wear gowns and masks and gloves while they're here. We ask them to sanitize their hands before they don clothing and then after they take it off."
They're also limiting the number of visitors. Parents pick four people who can visit.
"If they come in and have the sniffles,” Thetford said. “You can track and see is this something that's getting better or is it getting worse. It just allows you to have a little more control on who's coming in and who's going out."
New mom Stephanie Sartain says she doesn't mind the precautions.
"I'm actually glad they do everything with the washing of the hands and the mask and the gown,” she said. “I feel like he's being a little bit more protected by them taking those extra steps."
Thetford says, so far, all these extra steps have worked because no babies in this unit have gotten the H1N1 virus.
New moms in the maternity ward are allowed to let in whomever they want. Nurses advise them on what symptoms to watch for and the dangers of allowing someone who may be sick into the hospital.
