November is Premature Baby Awareness month. Although premature birth rates are declining, 380,000 babies are born prematurely each year. During this time, we’re recognizing the outstanding career of Dr. Fran Todd, long-time member of the Harbor Pediatrics family who is retiring from her post after decades of work here with premature babies.
A graduate of Torrance High and El Camino College (Associate of Arts, Nursing), the self-described “local girl” has been a stalwart presence at Harbor-UCLA for 41 years with an encyclopedic knowledge of Harbor Pediatrics history and faces that have come through our wards.
“I remember Paul as a fourth year medical student, she says. That’s Dr. Paul Fu Jr., now Chief of Medical Information here at Harbor-UCLA. “I remember Lynne Smith as a third year medical student,” she reminisces. That’s Dr. Lynne Smith, Chief of Pediatrics. The next predictable question is: What were they like? “They were absolutely awesome.”
If you ask Dr. Todd about the strength of Harbor-UCLA, she’ll tell you it is and always has been the instruction that takes place here. “That’s what has impressed me the most about Harbor,” she says. “Not only are you expected to teach, you are expected to be taught.”
She started working in the pediatrics ER in January of 1977. “Oh my gosh,” she says when asked to describe her time in the ER. “It was crazy but it was so much fun. We were able to get in there and change lives in a way that made the busyness all worthwhile.” She is thankful for the doctors at the time who taught her so much. She went back to school to get her bachelor’s degree while en route to receive her Nurse Practitioner’s degree. Dr. Todd joined neonatology around the time of the birth of Pediatric Emergency as a sub specialty.
Hearing Screening Clinic
In the late 1990’s, the state required hearing screenings to pick up babies who could not hear in the first couple days of life. “There were a lot of problems with the machines at that point but in 2001, the technology advanced and made it a lot easier,” she said. That is when she and Dr. Noble implemented the Hearing Screening program at Harbor-UCLA, and she headed the clinic until late last year but reminisces of the bureaucracy involved in the program’s creation. About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears.
The Respiratory Syncytial Virus Clinic
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a virus that commonly causes infection in childhood. RSV is very contagious. Almost all babies get it before the age of 2. Many babies get only a cold from RSV. Some babies with RSV develop potentially serious lower respiratory infections.
“I’ve heard it called and have used it in talks as ‘Really Scary Virus’,” says Dr. Todd. “A baby can be fine at 8am and by 8pm they’re intubated and dying on you. It’s scary.”
Dr. Todd was given the reigns of the RSV clinic and has since become a national expert on the subject, even speaking on behalf of the company that produces the shot administered for RSV.
Preventing premature babies
“At Harbor, we don’t often get sent moms with normal cases. We get sent moms with complicated cases, such as moms with autoimmune diseases that are pregnant and are already not having a good pregnancy. We work to recognize high-risk pregnancies. Our OBs and neonatologists and pediatricians get together to see what’s best for the mom and baby. It is case by case and we emphasize prenatal care to increase the likelihood of full-term babies.”
Nursery Clinic
Harbor Pediatrics does parent training for the transition from in-hospital to home. “We have moms come in and take care of the babies while they’re here at the hospital,” she says. “They learn how to do diapers and learn how to hold them and things of that nature. Then we send them home with their baby until we see them either a couple times a week or sometimes every two weeks, depending on how they’re doing. We do that in the nursery clinic because the transition is so critical and we have to have really good communication with the mother and caregivers.”
Dr. Todd gives her personal cell phone number to mothers with complicated issues and she says it has never been abused. Asked to describe her relationship with her patients, she smiles immediately. “They’re like family,” she says. “They’re absolutely like family.”
Dr. Todd is retiring, but staying busy. She is working with Dr. Mitchell Katz as he works to integrate the three major departments (departments of health services, public health and mental health).
Dr. Todd looks back at her time at Harbor-UCLA fondly. Though she is retiring, she’s not ready to give up the work entirely and will be here to some capacity. Asked what the best part of her work has been, the local girl says she’ll miss the friendships most of all. Friendships with colleagues and patients.
Premature Awareness Month
Sources: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing