SPOKANE, Wash. — Mark Peterson and the 4 News Now Extreme Team are gearing up to give a local nursery a much-deserved renovation.
Maddie’s Place near 8th Avenue and Arthur Street is a warm recovery nursery for babies born addicted to drugs and their parents.
34-year-old Kayla Mee and her 4-month-old twin babies are currently staying at Maddie’s Place and getting healthier together.
“I mean we all have different stories of how we got here,” Kayla said.
Mee found out she was 13 weeks pregnant with twins while living in a homeless camp known as “The Jungle” in Olympia.
“The doctors scared me when I was at the start unit, they were like ‘if you go through withdrawals you could lose the babies,'” she said.
She soon got on methadone and started a 26 day program, but left four days before completing it.
“I was doing whatever I had to do, either trying to get methadone on the street, or going to the clinic or using fentanyl,” Mee said.
In October, two months before her due date, the twins’ father was set on fire in the homeless camp. He died a few days after they were born.
Alone with her newborns and still struggling with addiction, Mee was turned away from multiple rehabilitation centers on the west side.
“They were like, ‘We’re not taking twins,'” she said.
She didn’t learn about Maddie’s place until her babies were hospitalized for a cold.
“They help you out with rehab, but it’s more for the babies,” Mee said.
Since Maddie’s Place opened in 2022, the organization has helped 117 babies.
Nearly 60% of parents who stay in their private rooms and nurseries were homeless. Now 89% of those parents are off the streets.
The organization offers a unique opportunity for parents to treat their own substance use disorder while bonding and caring for their babies in a safe environment, with support from on-site social workers and nurses.
The need for the service is great. Maddie’s Place just recently accepted its 15th baby. Their capacity is currently set at 16.
In 2022, the rate of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), which is a condition that occurs when a newborn baby is exposed to certain drugs, like opioids, was 340% in Spokane County.
Staff and Maddie’s Place said that number doesn’t account for the current fentanyl crisis.
While she and her babies continue to get healthy, Mee likes to cook in the facility’s kitchen.
“A kitchen is like the heart of a home. If it’s not clean, then the whole house falls apart,” she said.
The 4 News Now Extreme Team is ready to transform the Maddie’s Place kitchen so Mee and other parents can enjoy cooking and baking as they continue their journeys.
Tune into 4 News Now on Monday for an update and another story from Kirstin O’Connor about a family that recently graduated from Maddie’s Place and is about to get the keys to their first apartment.
The Extreme Team’s big reveal will air February 19.
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