The Bartram apartment complex recently donated a three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit to Shands Hospital for Children at UF to be used by families of babies born with a rare, life-threatening condition.
The apartment is available for families of newborns with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or CDH, to stay in rent free until the baby is done with treatment, which can take up to four months.
Bartram General Manager J.D. Hatton said his complex is hosting its third CDH family since the partnership started in December.
“It’s really something we wanted to get involved in,” he said. “These families are under a lot of traumatic stress when they get here with a critically ill baby.”
A CDH occurs when the baby’s diaphragm doesn’t fully develop, allowing other organs to migrate into the chest, which prevents the lungs from growing properly, said Joy Perkins, research and program coordinator for the CDH program at Shands. She said about one in every 3,000 newborns is affected by a CDH.
“In the next 10 to 15 years, they’ll know a lot more,” she said.
Pregnant mothers nationwide come to Shands to have their babies treated by Dr. David Kays, chief of pediatric surgery at UF’s College of Medicine. The national survival rate for babies with a CDH is about 60 percent. Kays specializes in the treatment and has a survival rate of about 92 percent.
“Here, it’s not just about the surgery,” Perkins said. “It’s about how babies are taken care of before and after the surgery.”
