poledriver
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Inside the shocking world of drug-addicted babies
IT IS impossible to imagine the pain a baby, dependent on opioids, goes through as it sweats, vomits and experiences explosive diarrhoea.
The high-pitched cry and sight of the baby shaking uncontrollably from a drug withdrawal is both heartbreaking and sickening.
Neonatologist Sean Loudin said babies, who are just days old, suffer the same way an adult does during withdrawal.
“Abdomen pain, explosive diarrhoea, tremors that can shake their whole bed, a lot of abdominal cramping,” he said.
“All you have to do is ask any adult that’s taken opiates or heroin, and ask them if they’re ready to quit cold turkey, ask them if they’re ready for that. There’s no adult that wants to sit in the foetal position pooping on themselves in the shower and experiencing that pain.
“That’s what these babies are going through if we don’t help them.”
Dr Loudin works at Cabell Huntington Hospital, in West Virginia, just over a seven-hour drive from New York City. The hospital is branching out on its own in an effort to fight an epidemic so tragic, so dire and so underrepresented.
In the United States, a baby dependent on opioids is born every 19 minutes.
While we’re all aware of the repercussions of drug addiction, little do we know about the impact it has on newborn babies. Born into misery, months and months after being fed opiates through its mother, a baby suffers excruciating pain.
In a desperate bid to expose the issue, the hospital released footage of a baby shaking profusely from a lack of drugs in his system.
It’s shocking. It’s confronting. And it’s real. Sadly, he’s not the only one.
“Just last week a mother told me she shot heroin while she was in labour,” a neonatal nurse at the hospital told news.com.au.
“It was her fourth pregnancy, her mother has her three other children. Yesterday, she told me she has no intention of quitting drugs, so her mother will take her fourth as well.
“We unfortunately have women who before they deliver, while they’re in labour and after they deliver, they’ll be using.
“You would never know she was a drug addict, I thought she was one of the case workers when she first came in. More than likely the ones you can’t spot are the ones you need to pay attention to.”
During news.com.au’s interview with hospital neonatal nurse Sara Murray, the sound of babies crying can be heard through closed doors. You’ve never heard anything quite like it.
“They call it a high-pitch cry but it’s something you really can’t describe,” Ms Murray explains.
“If you’ve ever heard a child who gets hurt, it’s just an intense hurt cry.”
President Barack Obama took the lead on the issue in October, describing it as a “crisis” that was “taking lives”.
“It’s destroying families and shattering communities all across the country,” he said at a panel discussion on opioid drug abuse in Charleston, West Virginia, less than an hour’s drive from the hospital.
The situation is getting worse. It’s at epidemic level, Dr Loudin said.
“It’s estimated 14 per cent of our entire population in our city uses drugs. Just last week there were nine adult deaths from heroin in our city,” he said.
“Fourteen per cent of all babies born in our hospital are exposed to drugs, and those are the ones I can prove, it’s an underestimation of what is a true number. That number may not seem like a lot until you see our nation as whole.
“Our nation is reporting that less than one per cent — 0.7 per cent — of all babies are born exposed across the nation. We are at 14 per cent in our hospital.”
There’s no other hospital in America that offers a service like Cabell Huntington.
In 2012, the hospital unveiled a second neonatal unit strictly for withdrawal babies. It’s a 12-bed unit but usually takes up to 18 newborns, sometimes up to 23.
They’ve also built an off-site rehabilitation centre, Lily’s Place, that houses these newborns in conditions more appropriate for withdrawal babies — away from the distractions of fluorescent lights and constant noise.
“We’re overcrowded, what we wanted to do was get the care that was equal to being in hospital,” Dr Loudin explains.
“We wanted a place to offer mothers [the] services, treatment and resources they need for recovery.
“What we do is help shepherd them in the right direction. We have a social worker on site that can get these mothers into the services they require.”
Cont -
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/pa...s/news-story/293746f619a21a73c9d4a8d3bebbcbf5
IT IS impossible to imagine the pain a baby, dependent on opioids, goes through as it sweats, vomits and experiences explosive diarrhoea.
The high-pitched cry and sight of the baby shaking uncontrollably from a drug withdrawal is both heartbreaking and sickening.
Neonatologist Sean Loudin said babies, who are just days old, suffer the same way an adult does during withdrawal.
“Abdomen pain, explosive diarrhoea, tremors that can shake their whole bed, a lot of abdominal cramping,” he said.
“All you have to do is ask any adult that’s taken opiates or heroin, and ask them if they’re ready to quit cold turkey, ask them if they’re ready for that. There’s no adult that wants to sit in the foetal position pooping on themselves in the shower and experiencing that pain.
“That’s what these babies are going through if we don’t help them.”
Dr Loudin works at Cabell Huntington Hospital, in West Virginia, just over a seven-hour drive from New York City. The hospital is branching out on its own in an effort to fight an epidemic so tragic, so dire and so underrepresented.
In the United States, a baby dependent on opioids is born every 19 minutes.
While we’re all aware of the repercussions of drug addiction, little do we know about the impact it has on newborn babies. Born into misery, months and months after being fed opiates through its mother, a baby suffers excruciating pain.
In a desperate bid to expose the issue, the hospital released footage of a baby shaking profusely from a lack of drugs in his system.
It’s shocking. It’s confronting. And it’s real. Sadly, he’s not the only one.
“Just last week a mother told me she shot heroin while she was in labour,” a neonatal nurse at the hospital told news.com.au.
“It was her fourth pregnancy, her mother has her three other children. Yesterday, she told me she has no intention of quitting drugs, so her mother will take her fourth as well.
“We unfortunately have women who before they deliver, while they’re in labour and after they deliver, they’ll be using.
“You would never know she was a drug addict, I thought she was one of the case workers when she first came in. More than likely the ones you can’t spot are the ones you need to pay attention to.”
During news.com.au’s interview with hospital neonatal nurse Sara Murray, the sound of babies crying can be heard through closed doors. You’ve never heard anything quite like it.
“They call it a high-pitch cry but it’s something you really can’t describe,” Ms Murray explains.
“If you’ve ever heard a child who gets hurt, it’s just an intense hurt cry.”
President Barack Obama took the lead on the issue in October, describing it as a “crisis” that was “taking lives”.
“It’s destroying families and shattering communities all across the country,” he said at a panel discussion on opioid drug abuse in Charleston, West Virginia, less than an hour’s drive from the hospital.
The situation is getting worse. It’s at epidemic level, Dr Loudin said.
“It’s estimated 14 per cent of our entire population in our city uses drugs. Just last week there were nine adult deaths from heroin in our city,” he said.
“Fourteen per cent of all babies born in our hospital are exposed to drugs, and those are the ones I can prove, it’s an underestimation of what is a true number. That number may not seem like a lot until you see our nation as whole.
“Our nation is reporting that less than one per cent — 0.7 per cent — of all babies are born exposed across the nation. We are at 14 per cent in our hospital.”
There’s no other hospital in America that offers a service like Cabell Huntington.
In 2012, the hospital unveiled a second neonatal unit strictly for withdrawal babies. It’s a 12-bed unit but usually takes up to 18 newborns, sometimes up to 23.
They’ve also built an off-site rehabilitation centre, Lily’s Place, that houses these newborns in conditions more appropriate for withdrawal babies — away from the distractions of fluorescent lights and constant noise.
“We’re overcrowded, what we wanted to do was get the care that was equal to being in hospital,” Dr Loudin explains.
“We wanted a place to offer mothers [the] services, treatment and resources they need for recovery.
“What we do is help shepherd them in the right direction. We have a social worker on site that can get these mothers into the services they require.”
Cont -
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/pa...s/news-story/293746f619a21a73c9d4a8d3bebbcbf5
