AngelEye Bridges Gap Between Home and Special Care Nursery

As a labor and delivery nurse at Franciscan Health Family Birth Center in Olympia Fields, Heather Carter was confident of the excellent care she and her baby would receive there.

What the New Lenox mom didn’t anticipate, was that little Liam would be born at 36 weeks and experience difficulty breathing, requiring a longer stay.

“They provided excellent care but it was still pretty scary to experience being on the other side and in need of specialized services,” Carter admitted.

Fortunately for Heather and moms in similar situations, the Franciscan Health Family Birth Center is equipped with AngelEye.

The AngelEye Health System is a secure, live-stream video camera system that allows parents to keep a virtual eye on their hospitalized child anytime, from anywhere.

“AngelEye helped a lot,” Heather said. “It’s a very nice tool for moms, especially when there are other children at home. It’s hard to feel like you need to split yourself between your kids at home and your sick baby.”

It helped Heather’s entire family deal with the separation from Liam. Implementing it while on family excursions was “kind of like having Liam there” with them.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Heather’s two-year-old son was unable to visit his new baby brother. Watching his new brother on-screen, he said, “baby brother?” He reached out and touched his new brother on the screen.

The video quality provided by the AngelEye system is excellent. Heather explained that Liam was tachypneic, which caused him to breath rapidly. Using AngelEye, she was able to watch his respiration slow down.

“I was becoming less stressed,” she said. “It was reassuring to be able to see him not struggle so much to breathe.”

Heather pointed out that, without AngelEye, she would have been waiting for her next in-person visit to hear he was improving. It was a relief to see it for herself on camera.

The birds-eye view, or rather, AngelEye view, also helped Heather feel like she was more involved in Liam’s care.

Heather strongly recommends AngleEye for any mother with a baby in the Special Special Care Nursery.

“This virtual visiting system is a great alternative to solving certain visiting obstacles that might make it difficult for siblings, grandparents, and other family members to meet the new addition to their family due to the hospitals’ visiting hours, age restrictions or travel impediments,” said Director of Patient Care Services Joan Culver. “We are happy to provide families with this convenient accessible technology for ease of mind.”

The Franciscan Family Birth Center is the only Special Care Nursery in Chicago’s Southland to offer the AngelEye Health System.