Saint Luke's Newsroom

I spent the first six weeks of my life at Saint Luke’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I was born 10 weeks early and weighed 3 pounds. My dad could hold me in the palm of his hand.

I was born at 24 weeks on October 20, 1984, and weighed only 21.5 ounces. My mom said my eyes were still fused close. The doctors at Saint Luke’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit told her I had only a 50 percent chance of surviving. (My odds went down to 13 percent when I developed a heart problem three weeks later.) The doctors said if I survived, I would be blind, deaf, and severely retarded.

Saint Luke’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit had just opened when I was born two months early on September 16, 1980. My mom developed preeclampsia, which caused her blood pressure to spike and her entire body to swell.

Patients needing CT scans at Saint Luke’s East-Lee’s Summit now have access to a new scanner with specialized radiation-reducing technology that produces a more accurate image.

Seabrun “Candy” Hunter is the co-writer of “Rockin’ Rockin’ Boogie,” one of the songs that brought his cousin Little Richard to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. But for the past 10 years, Hunter has had little to sing about.

David Hartzler was the epitome of health, then he noticed that he fatigued easily. His wife suggested he see a doctor. That changed everything.

The plane was at cruising altitude: far from its departure point of Albuquerque, N.M., but still about 1,000 miles from its destination of Washington, D.C.

A study supported by the Saint Luke’s Hospital Foundation and conducted by a U.S.-Egyptian research team has uncovered the earliest documented case of coronary atherosclerosis – a build-up of plaque in the arteries that supply the heart muscle that can result in heart attack – in a princess who died in her early 40’s and lived between 1580 and 1550 B.C.

Getting around had become nearly unbearable for Clarice McLaughlin. The 75-year-old should’ve been enjoying retirement after years of caring for others as a certified nursing assistant.