Helping "preemies"

New American, The, May 14, 2007 by Warren Mass

Mckenzie Brodnik was born six weeks prematurely 19 years ago at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. When she was taken to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, Mckenzie was given only a 10-percent chance of survival.

Miss Brodnik credits Dr. Siva Subramanian, the chief of Georgetown's NICU, with saving her life. He placed her on a then-experimental heart and lung machine--a therapy now rarely used because of improved technology. "In terms of a baby's survival with what we had then compared to now--it's day and night," Dr. Subramanian told ABC News.

Mckenzie has since visited the NICU to view the preemies in their incubators, and she wanted to do something to help the babies' parents cope with the high cost of modern life-support treatment. When she received a $1,000 inheritance check following the death of her beloved grandmother, she decided to put the money to work and started Pennies for Preemies.

Miss Brodnik put collection jars in co-operating local businesses, and in a three-year period raised $30,000. The giant CVS pharmacy firm agreed last summer to sponsor Pennies for Preemies, bringing in $20,000.

Mckenzie considers her campaign to help her fellow preemies to be part of her lifelong struggle to survive and flourish. As she told reporters, "When you are born into the world fighting, you almost never stop."