Minneapolis Children's Hospital In PEOPLE

I opened up our newest PEOPLE magazine this morning and was pretty darn surprised to find an article on micro-preemies highlighting Minneapolis Children's Hospital. Will was born at Abbott, which is affiliated with Children's and right across the street. He was transferred from Abbott to Children's, where he stayed for 5 days due to the intubation. Once that was removed, he was transferred back to Abbott (for insurance purposes), to the Level 2 Special Care Nursery which is staffed by Children's nurses and neonatalogists. The article mainly follows the stories of 6 people who are now teenagers and were born before 26 weeks gestation back in the late 80's/early 90s, but also has a section on Dr. Ronald Hoekstra. Dr. Hoekstra was Will's neonatalogist and the one who diagnosed the necrotizing enterocolitis when he was 2 weeks old. He was awesome to work with but I had no idea just how much experience he had! We were so lucky to have that kind of care, when so many other preemies never get the chance. 4 lbs and 31 weeks seemed so small...but it's nothing compared to the babies you see who are barely 1lb and never made it through the 2nd trimester. After being admitted to Abbott on bedrest at 28 weeks, I am so grateful! If you're interested, here is a link to an article that Dr. Hoekstra contributed to and the link to Minneapolis Children's. You should pick up a copy of PEOPLE too! Very cool! Kirstie Alley gained 83lbs back...I knew Jenny Craig was too good to be true!

http://www.pediatricservices.com/prof/prof-01.htm

http://www.childrensmn.org/Communities/AboutUs.asp