Prenatal care, indy film a hit, reading fun

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 2, 2002

If I could have held her, I would have needed only one hand.

Born 12 weeks premature, the baby's entire body was no longer than the distance from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my wrist. At birth, she weighed less than a pound. An array of tubes -- feeding her, breathing for her, keeping her alive -- sprouted out of her body. Machines monitoring every aspect of her life beeped and buzzed.

This is one of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Tampa General Hospital. Child Watch 2002, a new awareness and advocacy initiative organized by the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County, gave some of Tampa Bay's top business executives and community leaders a tour Tuesday.

The idea was to show the struggle endured by these tiny fighters, and to give the business people a chance to learn more about what they could do to support mothers and promote preventive measures.

The appeal was made in human, statistical and economic terms. Statistically, the need for prenatal treatment in Hillsborough is underscored by the fact that 11 states in the United States have fewer births a year than Hillsborough has (14,815).

Nationally, only 8 percent of all births are low-weight, but in parts of Tampa's inner city the rate is 21/2 times that.

Economically, the search for ways to reduce the rising costs of health insurance could easily start with reducing low-weight births.

Consider this: The cost of caring for that tiny girl at Tampa General ranges from $5,000 to $10,000 -- a day.

That's a bottom line we all can understand.

The reaction to 'Carnival Knowledge,' the new independent movie from Tampa-based Minaret Films, has been so favorable that its run at Channelside Cinemas is being extended to Oct. 10. The movie, co-directed and co-written by Peter Knight and Morgan Klein, finished second in weekend box office receipts at the Channelside complex to Sweet Home Alabama.

The self-billed "unromantic comedy" is about a Tampa cocktail waitress who uses the scams she learned while being raised on the carnival circuit to juggle two lovers.

Not only are Knight and Klein Tampa natives, but Knight is the great grandson of Peter O. Knight, the namesake of the airport on Davis Islands.

A highlight of first lady Laura Bush's visit to Tampa on Tuesday was its focus on Reach Out and Read, a national literacy program.

Here in Tampa Bay, University of South Florida pediatrician Sharon Dabrow directs the program with a passion. Reach Out and Read gives needy kids ages 5 months to 6 years new children's books. No, five months is not too young to start reading to your child.

The program also solicits volunteers to read to kids in the waiting room of pediatricians, and it encourages doctors to stress the importance of reading out loud to kids.

"I've seen the benefit in my own children as well as our patients," Dabrow said. "One of the doctors in Boston who founded the program has said it is as or more important than giving immunizations to kids."

Former Chatterbox proprietor Dan Lea still is dispensing advice, but now he is giving it out from the sidelines. Lea is working as an assistant coach at Jefferson High.

Okay, I have the names of the two alleged ringers in the St. Pete Times rock band that won the Battle of the Media Bands Friday night. It was Kent Knepper on bass, and Joe Turan on keyboard. And I'm telling you, they work in the New Port Richey bureau.

Or somewhere.

That's all I'm saying.

- Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com.

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