Hospital links mother, baby with father in Iraq
By LAJUAN MOONEY Features editor

The fall of 2006 was a momentous time in the life of Tull resident and Bauxite graduate Randy Scudder.

A gunner in the First Cavalry, Seventh Brigade, Scudder proposed to Carrie Burrow on the same day he left for pre-deployment training.

Wanting to make her his wife before full deployment, Scudder used leave time to come home for a private marriage ceremony.

Shortly after his deployment to Iraq, the Scudders found out that they were going to become parents.

This brought about more than the usual array of emotions for the young wife and mother-to-be: Excitement over the thought of their first child and sadness and disappointment that she would be going through this important occasion without her husband by her side.

As her due date grew near, Carrie was still struggling with the fact that Randy would miss out on the baby's birth.

"I was talking to my mom one day about Randy having to miss all of this," says Carrie. "And we just started talking about how neat it would be if we could have an Internet hookup from the hospital to Randy."

Carrie's mother, Debbie Burrow, works at Saline Memorial Hospital. She approached the Information Systems department about the possibility of her son-in-law being a part of the birth via computer.

The IS team thought that this was a wonderful opportunity to help a patient in a time of need. "We were happy to accommodate Carrie in her extreme circumstances," said Mike Harney, IS manager. "With the current technology it was really easy to accomplish."

Even though the distance between Benton, Ark., and Camp Taji, Iraq is great, the father did not have to miss out on the birth.

A web camera was set up in Carrie's room on the third floor of SMH, making it possible to communicate by typing as well as allowing them to see each other on the computer screen.

"It was amazing to be able to talk to my husband and for him to see our baby being born," she said. "It really helped

me get through my delivery because I felt like he was there with me."

Thanks to the help of SMH's computer staff, Randy shared with Carrie the birth of their son, Landon.

"It's awesome the difference a computer makes for the families of soldiers," says Carrie.

She and her family know this first-hand.

Her brother, Thomas, now out of the military, was deployed with the Army's 173rd Airborne unit. "Sometimes we would have to wait two or three weeks to hear from him," she said. "It was awful not knowing if he was OK or not.

With Randy, I get to hear from him every week and I send him videos of Landon so that he can see how he changes from week to week. But what the hospital did for us was special. It was a huge deal to us. All I can say is 'thank you' for helping us share this life-changing experience together."