R Baby Foundation: Saving Babies’ Lives

I’m taking a break from cooking today to highlight a very important issue…

In 1973, at the age of 2 years old, I was rushed to the Pediatric Emergency Department at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD.  Unbeknownst to my parents, I had swallowed an entire bottle of Lomotil medicine I found while playing with my mother’s pocketbook. Lomotil is a prescription medicine used to treat diarrhea and contains a poisonous ingredient called atropine.  They had no idea I had inadvertently overdosed and subsequently poisoned myself.  They only witnessed me drifting in and out of consciousness at the dinner table and realized something was dreadfully wrong.  They called our pediatrician who immediately sent them (and me) to the ED.  After seven days in the hospital, I was finally sent home.  I survived.

Others have not been so lucky.  Five years ago, Phyllis and Andrew Rabinowitz gave birth to a premature baby girl, Rebecca.  After 5 days in the NICU at the hospital, baby Rebecca was released as a “healthy” newborn.  However, after noticing Rebecca’s labored breathing and a build up of mucus, her parents went back to the hospital emergency department only to be told, day after day, Rebecca was suffering from a “common cold.”  Rebecca died… only nine days after birth. Her parents later learned that she had contracted an enteroviral infection that can be life-threatening in babies. Had her symptoms been treated, she may still be here today.

As a result of this tragedy with Rebecca, the R Baby Foundation was created. The charity is committed to helping newborn babies, primarily those less than a month old suffering from viral infections and other infectious diseases, receive the highest quality of care and service through supporting education, research, training and life-saving equipment.

This year I am proud to be part of an amazing community of RBABY mom influencers who appear in the new PSA. We have joined R Baby Foundation to help inform, educate and inspire critical improvements to pediatric emergency care.

To date, R Baby has raised over $5 million and more than 90% of every dollar spent is for grants directed to save babies’ lives!

Please take a few moments to watch the PSA and sign the petition – let’s make it happen!

Because, why wouldn’t we do all that we can to improve the chances that infants will be properly diagnosed, treated and saved through enhanced pediatric care services…

Watch and share the PSA:

Sign the R Baby Foundation petition to improve pediatric emergency care here.

Follow R Baby Foundation on Twitter here.

Follow R Baby Foundation on Facebook here.

Read and share R Baby Foundation tips here.

Come celebrate with R Baby Foundation at their 5 star gala in NYC on May 9th here.

Donate to the R Baby Foundation here.

Shop with Glassybaby and donate here.

Volunteer here.

Share your emergency department story with other parents here.

 

“He who saves one life is as
if he saved the entire world.”
— Talmud