A.G. Gancarski
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson visited Jacksonville Tuesday afternoon, meeting with doctors at UF Health Jacksonville’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to discuss the ever-increasing problem of newborns addicted to opioids.
The issue is an especial challenge at UF Health – the sole “safety-net” hospital in Northeast Florida, where the vast majority of patients are either on Medicaid or no insurance at all.
The hospital operates “hand to mouth” in terms of budgeting, and for Sen. Nelson – who is attempting to lead Senate resistance to the American Health Care Act that finally passed the House – the impact of the opioid crisis and D.C, budgetary uncertainty offered Nelson a unique opportunity to message about what is clearly a life and death issue in Jacksonville and nationwide.
The problem at UF Health: a perpetual one, one that siphons resources and staff attention. Of the 43 newborns on site now, three of them have been determined to have neonatal addiction issues.
But that doesn’t mean those are all the babies affected: premature babies, said a nurse, are often affected by opioid addiction from the mother, but the symptoms manifest differently.
Nelson noted that Duval County is second only to Pinellas in addiction issues for newborns.
“We are in the midst of an opioid crisis,” Nelson said.
And if that is true, Duval County is an epicenter.
And children are affected worst of all – especially poor children from sub-functional families.
Consider: 70 percent of Florida kids are on Medicaid. For kids with neonatal addiction issues, that number goes to 80 percent. At UF Health, the estimates are that up to 90 percent of the babies with addiction issues out of the womb are Medicaid babies.
In the last three years, the number of babies with neo-natal addiction issues at UF Health is up from 10 per 1,000 to 15 or 16 per 1,000.
Those babies, on average, stay on premises for 16 to 17 days after being born … though others have stayed up to two months.
And those aren’t pleasant stays – not with distinctive high-pitched cries, convulsions, inabilities to feed, and other very adult symptoms of withdrawal for babies just removed from their mothers’ wombs.
Often, the mothers are in “maintenance” programs themselves – methadone, helpful in adult rehab, catalyzes withdrawal symptoms in these babies.
Morphine often is required to quell those newborns’ existential hells. And once discharged from Newborn ICUs, they often go home to dysfunctional households, where needs – including physical therapy – often go woefully unaddressed.
These children: more likely to die early, either from SIDS, mental health issues, or physical abuse.
And their mothers often didn’t expect or want babies: 90 percent of newborns battling the demon of addiction, passed via fallopian tubes, were products of “unintended pregnancies.”
Prevention can help; but by the time the situation gets to UF Health, it is clear standard advice regarding disposal of prescription medicines is the least of the problem.
Nelson sees the problem of opioid addiction as one with “no boundaries,” ranging from New Hampshire to the farm belt, and to the Sunshine State itself.
And indeed, it’s a problem with an exponential growth curve. Neonatal addiction has almost doubled in five years, and has increased 5 times since 1994, a combination of Big Pharma marketing and product refinement, all of it wrapped up in a package with a bright bow of FDA approval.
For Russ Armistead, the CEO of UF Health, the impact is one of “longer lengths of stay” for these babies, and the increasing possibility of other illnesses being contracted while hospitalized.
Medicaid in Florida picks up just 60 percent of the costs … a problem that could have been eliminated, agreed Nelson and Armistead, if Florida had expanded the program.
“Politics is getting in the way of care for babies,” Nelson said. “The poor child, through no fault of its own, is born addicted.”
“It’s another symptom of our times. We have a lot of opioid addiction. It has become a pandemic,” Nelson said, noting that 2,000 babies “are addicted because the mothers are addicted.”
Without federal Medicaid money, Nelson noted that there was no possible solution.
