She had three surgeries and would have needed a fourth as an infant. Eventually, she also would have required a heart-lung transplant. Death came softly, quietly, with no visible pain. The rates for 1997, the latest year available, show little change. Urgent call Black babies in Franklin County have a higher death rate than infants in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Malaysia and Poland.
Similar gaps show up statewide and in other counties with large cities.
Birth defects such as Kaila's are the third-leading cause of black infant deaths in Franklin County and the leading cause among white infants. The top two factors in black infant deaths are low birthweight because of prematurity and sudden infant death syndrome. The bottom line is we have a ridiculously high infant-mortality rate in Franklin County. Community leaders doubt that overt racism among doctors, health administrators or policy-makers accounts for the disparity. Yet concerns persist because few blacks hold hospital administration or medical leadership positions to monitor policies or procedures that might adversely affect black patients.