Karen Dodge

Bob and Judy Dodge from Dolgeville, NY, shared their Baker Regional NICU story recently, and here’s what they had to say:

Our daughter Karen was born in Little Falls Hospital late on May 17, 1981. Immediately after her arrival, we were informed that our daughter had a birth defect, spina bifida, and would have to be transferred to another hospital for surgery to close the opening on her back.

We were given the choice of Albany or Syracuse, and because my sister lived in Liverpool and was an RN working at Crouse, we chose Syracuse. Our baby girl was transported the following morning to Crouse Hospital and after the neurosurgeon examined her, Dr. Lourie called me at Little Falls Hospital and told me he would take good care of our “baby girl” Dodge.

As soon as I was discharged, I traveled to Syracuse to stay with my sister for a week and to

finally see our girl again. I already knew she was being well taken care of because whenever we called, day or night, the nurse caring for Karen always got on the phone to tell us how she was doing. The nurses answered all our questions and and my sister was there giving her hugs and kisses. A few days after her initial surgery, she again had to go back into surgery because the spinal fluid was leaking, but they only had to add a couple extra stitches and she was good to go.

On June 6, after three weeks in the NICU, we finally got the call that she could go home. We would have to bring Karen to Syracuse once a month to visit the clinic and while there, we would visit the nurses in the NICU. This was almost 35 years ago and today our daughter is a beautiful person, hard working, and the mother of an eight-year-old daughter (in photo above) and will soon have our second granddaughter. I cannot say it enough how much we appreciated the nurses in the NICU!

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