Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Smith discusses ACH with Rotarians

Libby Smith with Arkansas Children's Hospital was the guest speaker at Rotary on Thursday, March 18.

"It's always wonderful to talk to people about what is going on at Arkansas Children's Hospital.

"I see lot's of people here today who I know have donated money to our hospital.

"Bill Fowler has helped donate through the Sturgis Foundation and Anita Cabe has done so much to help us raise funds,' said Smith.

She said it takes a lot of hands to keep the hospital working and to raise the funds necessary to build new and better facilities.

According to Smith, Arkansas is not one of the richest states, but the way citizens volunteer and make donations is unbelievable.

"It is so dramatic how much the hospital has grown. In the mid-70's we could handle some problems at the facility, but there was still so much that we couldn't handle.

"Now we have heart care and we see 95 percent of the state's children with cancer. We have a state-of-the-art burn unit that we are proud of.

"We don't just help with children, we try and help the parents too. You know when your child is sick and hurting, so are you. We try to make the parents as comfortable as possible," said Smith.

The neonatal care unit now has 56 units for babies. They used to have only 30.

Smith said, "I thought we would never be able to fill all of the beds but now the hospital has 60-70 babies. Some of the babies weigh less than one pound. It seems like a miracle."

The cardiovascular area and surgery unit was built two years ago. Smith said the two surgery rooms are always busy.

"Our waiting rooms were really substandard, but now we have some of the most wonderful waiting rooms, and we even have separated waiting rooms for families to be alone in. This sometimes helps keep a child's mind off of what is going on and gives the parent some one on one time.

"We also have a new pediatric Intensive Care Unit. We are thankful to the Reynolds Foundation for the funds to build the ICU.

"Our next feat is to build a bigger heart center. It is so sad, but due to lack of space we sometimes have to send children to other hospitals and we don't want to have to do that," said Smith.

She closed by thanking everyone for their support and helping ACH grow.