12 / 24
came into the delivery room and
took her hand.
“We’re going to do everything we
can to save your baby,” Thorpe said.
“She was the first person to say
that,” Arledge remembers, “and I
immediately trusted her.”
The tiniest patient
Travis was born weighing just
1 pound, 3.5 ounces. At just over
23 weeks’ gestation, his lungs weren’t
developed. He would need to be on a
ventilator for the first two months of
his life. For eight days, he lived in the
When Travis Arledge was
born, he weighed just
1 pound, 3.5 ounces.
One person gave his
frightened parents hope:
Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit Nurse JoannThorpe,
RNC, of Mercy Medical
Center Redding—the
winner of the 2015 national
NICU Heroes Award.
He
weighed
just
19.5
ounces
NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
Chelsea Arledge
went
into labor at 23 weeks pregnant in
July 2008. Her baby wasn’t due until
November.
It was a beautiful day in Redding
that July, sunny and warm, but this
first-time mother was afraid. When
her water had broken at 20 weeks,
doctors told her the baby couldn’t
survive; he needed more time.
In pain and frightened, convinced
she was going to lose her baby,
Arledge felt helpless and hopeless.
That’s when Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit Nurse Joann Thorpe, RNC,
12