Callie and Dustin Kellums had twins in 2020, a boy named Luke and a girl named Kate. Born prematurely, both newborns required care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. After a week, Luke was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, and it quickly became apparent that he needed more advanced care.
Luke was med-flighted to Arkansas Children’s in Little Rock, splitting the babies up between two hospitals, two hours apart.
“It wasn’t easy having one baby in Jonesboro and one baby in Little Rock,” said Dustin. “We were so lucky to have Callie’s parents near and a great group of friends to help us. Plus, this was during COVID so only one person at a time could visit the babies. That obviously made things more difficult.”
The couple also had a 2-year-old son, Ben, at home, which added to the complexities of caring for their family. “I received some good advice from a doctor at St. Bernards,” said Callie. “She told me that our newborns had excellent around-the-clock care in both hospitals. And it was okay to focus on Ben so things could be as normal as possible for him. I appreciated that advice.”
Fifteen days after the twins were born, Luke succumbed to bacterial meningitis and passed away.
“When Luke died, we wanted to do something positive with our grief,” said Callie. “We received such amazing care at St. Bernards in Jonesboro for both of our babies, we decided to help expand their NICU so that families in this area didn’t have to go hours away for better care. We raised nearly $100,000, and recently pledged another $70,000 to the NICU.”
A friend of the Kellums, Wade Bowen, suggested that Dustin and Callie use Arkansas Community Foundation to help manage the donations. The couple started the Luke Kellums NICU Fund – Benefiting St. Bernards.
“We saw a level of care in Little Rock that northeast Arkansas just didn’t have,” said Dustin. “We wanted to see that same level of staffing and equipment become available to families here. The latest expansion at St. Bernards is named after Luke. This keeps his memory alive and gives our children something to be proud of.”
“Our hope for the future is that if anyone else is faced with having a baby in the NICU,” Callie continued, “that they can be as close to their babies as possible, for as long as possible.”