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Jennifer Naples had a normal pregnancy until her water broke in
July 2008—three months too early.
 Jennifer and her husband, Nick, rushed from their Estero home to
The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. Jennifer was
admitted to the Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Center, or
RPICC, which provides care for mothers and infants during
high-risk pregnancies.
Jennifer lay in bed for the next several weeks to prevent early
labor or infection. The odds weren’t good. “It was six weeks,
hour-by-hour, day-by-day, just waiting,” Nick says. “The staff
at the hospital was like angels, helping us every hour. They
just kept telling my wife, ‘stay strong’ and ‘you can do this.’”
Nick alternated between visiting Jennifer and caring for their
three children at home. “It was hard, and we are only 15 minutes
from the hospital. We met families who were traveling one to two
hours and couldn’t always see their children every day,” he
says.
Joey Naples was born Aug. 16, 2008—at 27 weeks. He was taken to
the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and put on a ventilator because
his lungs were not fully formed. He also had to wear blinders
because his optical nerve was not yet attached and had an IV
placed into the main artery next to his heart to deliver
medication and antibiotics. “This wasn’t like they just held the
baby in a dark place and rocked him. There was a lot of
aggressive intervention,” Nick says. “Now, he’s a normal
20-month-old child with asthma.”
“Lee Memorial Health System provides world class health care
close to home—you just have to know where it is,” Nick also
says.
Joey was this year’s Most Valuable Player at the Red Sox
Celebrity Golf Classic, which raises funds for the Lee Memorial
Health System Foundation.
To learn more about The Children's Hospital of Southwest
Florida,
click here.
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