Baptist Health Paducah welcomes first babies of 2013

For the second consecutive year, Baptist Health Paducah welcomed twin brothers as the first babies born in the region in the new year.

The babies were born at 3:13 and 3:14 a.m. Jan. 1 to Erika and Derrick Damron of Barlow. Brady Gene weighed 3 pounds, 9 ounces, while Brock Westley weighed two pounds, 8 ounces. The proud parents were presented with a gift basket from the hospital. 

The Damrons weren’t expecting to meet their boys until March 2, but the boys needed to be delivered nine weeks early because of a blood circulation concern.

The babies are in Baptist Health Paducah’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the only one in western Kentucky. Last year’s first babies also benefited from the NICU.

More babies are born each year at Baptist Health Paducah than at all other western Kentucky hospitals combined, numbering more than 70,000 since it opened in 1953.