Jennifer Harvey’s gynecologist had cautioned her to keep an eye on her rising blood pressure, but when she got it checked at a local pharmacy, it was so high they sent her straight to The MED.

Jennifer had preeclampsia, which threatens both mother and baby. As soon as she checked into The MED, they started working to reduce her blood pressure since she was still early in her third trimester. After three days, however, the danger was too great and they took Jennifer in for an emergency caesarean delivery.

“Everyone was fabulous. From the beginning they kept me informed and calm, telling me about other women with my condition and telling me things would be okay,” Jennifer recalls. “When Sloane was born, they whisked her off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit as soon as I got a good look at her. She was so tiny.”

At two pounds and ten ounces, Sloane was tiny, but she was also a fighter and off of her breathing apparatus in 24 hours.

Jennifer also went to the Intensive Care Unit, so her medical team could continue to work on reducing her blood pressure. She was able to move into a regular patient room the next day, but it still took almost two weeks of continuous care to get her blood pressure close to being what it should be.

Since Sloane was so early, she didn’t have sucking and swallowing capabilities and she wasn’t tolerating a feeding tube. It was important to increase her weight, so surgery was scheduled right before Thanksgiving to install a center line. After this success, she was still kept in NICU while she continued to grow and develop.

Jennifer visited her daughter every day. “The nurses in NICU are just amazing. I don’t know how they do what they do,” Jennifer relates. “At Thanksgiving, they made a turkey from Sloane’s tiny hand print and at Christmas, Sloane had a Christmas cap and dress. Things like that would really lift your spirits.”

Sloane came home the day after Christmas, but Jennifer has taken her back to visit the doctors and nurses that cared for them both.

“The MED saves lives. They saved my daughter and me. I had already chosen The MED for my delivery but after our experience, I really know that the doctors and nurses there are the best.”

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