Premature Infants

A premature baby was found dead of asphyxiation in a restroom trash can at St. John's hospital in Oxnard, the day after the infant's 15-year-old mother was treated for leg pain and released from the hospital, police said Wednesday. Police said that during the mother's leg examination at St. John's Regional Medical Center, the Oxnard teen-ager excused herself to go to the bathroom, where she gave birth to the 3-pound, 9-ounce girl Monday.

For years, researchers have stressed the importance of the mother-infant bond--that early "connection" that can make or break a lifelong relationship. Now, the father-infant bond is increasingly becoming a focus for scientists. And investigators are finding that, when it comes to parent-child bonding, dads aren't much different than moms. Contact, physical and psychological, seems to be the key.

The Food and Drug Administration today approved a drug, Exosurf Neonatal, that could help save thousands of premature infants born with immature lungs. The drug, a powder mixed with sterile water, substitutes for a naturally occurring foam that coats the inside of the lungs and keeps them from collapsing when the infant exhales. The infants receive the drug through a tube into their windpipes. They must be on a mechanical ventilator to receive it.

James sucks on a glove. That's a good sign. Encouraging James' tongue and jaw muscles to suck on a gloved hand is part of the treatment from his therapist. He needs a therapist, not as the victim of an accident or stroke, but as a baby born 11 weeks too soon. "Everything we're doing is preventive," said Penny Erickson, James Zazueta's occupational therapist at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Woodland Hills.

James sucks on a glove. That's a good sign. Encouraging James' tongue and jaw muscles to suck on a gloved hand is part of the treatment from his therapist. He needs a therapist, not as the victim of an accident or stroke, but as a baby born 11 weeks too soon. "Everything we're doing is preventive," said Penny Erickson, James Zazueta's occupational therapist at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Woodland Hills.

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it has authorized widespread use of an experimental drug to treat hyaline membrane disease, a serious respiratory ailment that is one of the leading causes of death and disability in premature infants. In 1963, the disease killed 2-day-old Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, a baby boy born to President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy. The condition, also known as respiratory distress syndrome, afflicts about one in five premature infants in the United States.

When month-old Vito Colucci snuggles up to the baby-blue teddy bear in his incubator, he's getting more than creature comfort. Vito, born 13 weeks premature, also is learning how to breathe. The hand-sewn, sheepskin bear in the Isolette at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington has a balloon in its abdomen connected to a mechanical air pump so the bear mimics the deep, gentle inhaling and exhaling of a healthy, sleeping person.

Nine-year-old Jeremy Felton is one of the patients whom doctors and nurses at Valley Medical Center point to with pride. Jeremy, who was born 10 weeks early and weighed less than 3 pounds, is legally blind but can see somewhat with corrective lenses. He gets around in a wheelchair, but can stand and walk if someone helps him. Although his speech is almost incoherent, he can speak and understand what other people are saying.

UC San Diego Medical Center officials Friday urged that pregnant women planning to undergo a Caesarean section donate their amniotic fluid to help treat sick premature babies with a technique pioneered at the hospital. Under the program announced Friday, the treatment, which involves isolating a lung lubricant from the amniotic fluid and giving it to sick infants, will become more readily available.