Look Who it Was Random video

SWFL Preemies Survive and Thrive

202 views · Published 25 January 2016 · 1:31 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: Lee Health · 2016 · Science & Technology

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“Our NICU has been involved in the Vermont Oxford Study for many, many years. About ten years ago when we got established here in our developmental clinic we became part of that as well,” says Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida nurse practitioner, Sherri Campbell. 

The international study was designed to help track and measure improvements in the quality of neonatal intensive care, ultimately resulting in babies with fewer disabilities and impairments.

“They track how many days they stayed in the hospital, if they had any bleeding in the brain, how sick they were and what kind of procedures were done to them,” says Campbell. 

Arriving at just under 26 weeks, Fate weighed only one pound 11 ounces when she was born. Like many preemies, she had unstable heart and undeveloped lungs. 

Major disabilities common to preemies are cognitive delays, cerebral palsy, blindness and hearing loss. With a decade of data, premature babies from Golisano Children’s Hospital reported 15% disability compared to the study average of 21%, a credit to their care at birth and beyond.

“We have less cerebral palsy, we have less blindness, we have less intellectual delay and our kids are overall doing better. So that’s just a real comfort to me,” says Campbell. 

“I just wanted her life to be happy, healthy and special,” says Fate’s mom, Elaine Capps. 

Today she is a happy healthy 11-year old.

“I think when she was about three, three and a half you wouldn’t have been able to 
Tell that she was a preemie,” says Elaine Capps. 


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