Upfitted to transport critically ill babies, the Neonatal Transport is a state-of-the-art ambulance that brings these infants to our Level III neonatal care unit from neighboring towns like Statesville, Wilkesboro, Boone, Lincolnton and Lenoir. Our transport service allows neonatal care closer to home for Catawba Valley families in the personal, one-on-one atmosphere of the Special Care Nursery.

Our Neonatal Transport is under the guidance and direction of Samuel Davis Wellman Jr., MD, Medical Director of Neonatology, and David D. Berry, MD, former Medical Director of the Infant Transport Program at North Carolina Baptist Hospital. The neonatal transport ambulance, which provides high frequency jet ventilation and nitric oxide administration on board, is staffed by a specially trained nurse and respiratory therapist.

The unit:

• Transports infants needing critical care for a variety of needs (including low birth weight, respiratory distress, and/or infections present at birth) from neighboring facilities to CVMC's Birthing Center, which offers a higher level of specialized care.
• Delivers care by staff, including a registered nurse and registered respiratory therapist.
• Provides service to and from facilities as far north as the Virginia line, as far south as Gaston County, as far west at McDowell County, and as far east as Forsyth County.
• Offers specialty transport that provides high frequency jet ventilation and nitric oxide administration on board.
• Benefits infants and their parents by keeping them as close to home as possible.
• Allows infant admission to Catawba Valley Medical Center's Level III Special Care Nursery staffed by registered nurses, registered respiratory therapists, neonatal nurse practitioners, and board-certified neonatalogists

Neonatal Transport services may be accessed by medical personnel through the CVMC Physician Access Line (PALS): 828/326-3900.