If your newborn is in a neonatal intensive care unit, you may have heard the term "NEC" — or you may have heard nothing at all, which is increasingly part of what parents and courts say is the problem.
Necrotizing enterocolitis is a life-threatening condition in which intestinal tissue becomes inflamed, begins to die, and can allow infection to spread through the body of a premature infant. It is among the leading causes of death in very premature babies, particularly those born at less than 32 weeks of gestation and those with very low birth weight. It requires surgical intervention in a significant percentage of cases, and survivors can face lifelong gastrointestinal complications.
