Lufkin Gets a NICU

Chances are, you know someone who has benefited from the NICU - that's Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit.

I have two friends in Dallas who gave birth to baby boys that needed a little extra help getting started in life.  One spent a month in the NICU, and one spent nine days there.  Both are doing just fine now!  One is 7 now and the other just turned 2.  They started out their lives hooked up to tubes and on respirators, and they're just as happy and healthy as every other kid now.

Lufkin will become the first city in the area to get a NICU, so East Texas couples who need them will no longer have to drive far to get to them.

KTRE reports construction begins in June at Woodland Heights Medical Center, in partnership with Texas Woman's Hospital in Houston.  New delivery rooms will be built, new state-of-the-art equipment will be added, and new jobs are expected too.

Babies who need extra care will no longer have to go to Houston to get it.  And this will probably draw patients from other East Texas towns to Lufkin too.  There's no completion date that's been announced, but we'll keep you updated.