In 1968, after completing medical school at Johns Hopkins University and his pediatric residency training at Rainbow Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Dr. Gilbert Ratcliff, Jr. returned to his home town of Huntington to open a solo pediatric practice in the west end of town.

In those early days, babies born prematurely routinely died in the delivery room or shortly after birth. Dr. Ratcliff and his friend, Dr. Harry Tweel, an adult pulmonary specialist, began trying to save and care for these babies. The hospital bought a new infant ventilator and Dr. Ratcliff created space in the well born nursery for these high risk infants.

In 1976, help arrived when Dr. Joseph Werthammer returned home to Huntington following his pediatric residency training at University Hospital in San Diego, California. Dr. Werthammer’s number one priority has always been and will always be to provide the best possible medical care for the children in our area. From the beginning, he knew that no one person could accomplish that goal. Soon after Dr. Werthammer came to Huntington, he turned to Dr. Ratcliff to help that dream evolve into a reality. In many ways, Dr. Ratcliff became a mentor to Dr. Werthammer.

Dr. Ratcliff was considered by most to be the preeminent pediatrician in Huntington in 1976. This was evident in the long lines of patients, some with bag lunches in hand, who filled his waiting room and hallway on any given day. Dr. Ratcliff’s commitment to his patients has always been 110%.

The first big dream of Dr. Werthammer and Dr. Ratcliff was to establish a top level Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Cabell Huntington Hospital. During his residency in San Diego, Dr. Werthammer had worked under Dr. Louis Gluck, considered to be a pioneer in the development of neonatology as a sub-speciality of pediatrics. Dr. Gluck instilled in Dr. Werthammer a passion for neonatology and this passion was ready to explode in the town of Huntington, WV.

While Dr. Werthammer was generating support from the hospital’s board and local civic groups for an NICU, he was simultaneously building his private pediatric practice which was called Pediatrics Incorporated. His patients often had to wait for longer than normal periods in the waiting room while he rushed to the hospital to stabilize a sick preemie or went on a transport to pick up a baby in need of special care. His patients and their parents never complained.

The first big contribution to Cabell Huntington’s upstart NICU was a transport module donated by the March of Dimes. This allowed Dr. Werthammer and Dr. Ratcliff to bring babies from other hospitals to Cabell Huntington Hospital for special neonatal care. The first NICU existed in the form of 2 specialized beds set up in the hospital’s regular well baby nursery. Dr. Werthammer spent countless hours meeting with physicians in outlying areas to encourage them to send their premature babies or high risk newborns to Cabell Huntington Hospital. He also met with many group representatives to solicit contributions for special equipment. It was a 24/7 commitment to a dream.

The first transports were done in Dr. Ratcliff’s station wagon. The transport module was set up in the rear of the wagon and, on more than one occasion, these transports resulted in car sickness for the “doc in the back” as Dr. Werthammer and Dr. Ratcliff traveled many winding roads to retrieve and rescue their tiny charges in need of extra care.

By early 1977, Cabell Huntington Hospital had its first NICU, which consisted of 9 beds – 3 for critically ill babies and 6 for moderately ill patients. However, it was not uncommon for the NICU to be overflowing into the well baby unit. Dr. Werthammer often said, “If we don’t take them, they will die” and that was something that neither he nor Dr. Ratcliff could live with.

Then in 1979, Dr. Werthammer and his family moved to Boston, MA, where he did a 2 year Neonatology Fellowship at Harvard University. The Werthammers returned to Huntington in the summer of 1981 and Dr. Werthammer passed his Neonatology Board Exam in the autumn of 1981. Dr. Ratcliff also passed his neonatology boards the same year.

In 1988, Dr. Werthammer became Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Marshall University’s School of Medicine. At that time, the Department of Pediatrics had 2 faculty members and had lost its accreditation for its residency program. Today, the department has 30 faculty members and its residency program is fully accredited.

In 1997, Pediatrics Incorporated merged with the clinical professionals at the Marshall University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and became University Pediatrics. Today, University Pediatrics provides top level general and sub-specialty pediatric care for thousands of children in the region.

Dr. Werthammer’s long-term vision has always been to establish a collaborative network of highly qualified general pediatricians and pediatric sub-specialists. In addition to University Pediatrics’ local professionals, the NICU at Cabell Huntington Hospital is part of the Oxford Study Group, which includes a nation-wide network of NICUs who share clinical strategies along with data regarding patient survival and long-term outcomes. The Cabell Huntington Hospital NICU consistently rates well above the national average compared to the national numbers for survival of its neonatal patients.

Today’s NICU consists of 35 beds; however, all in-patient pediatric services, including the NICU and PICU, will soon find a new home in the “tower” being built at Cabell Huntington Hospital. This “Children’s Hospital within a Hospital” will indeed represent the culmination of those dreams that began back in the summer of 1976.

Special thanks to Mrs. Toby Werthammer for contributing this information.