Public Radio East serves Eastern North Carolina by providing news, fine arts, and informational programming that challenges, stimulates, educates, and entertains an intellectually curious audience.

© 2026 Public Radio East

Public Radio East
800 College Court
New Bern, NC 28562

EIN 56-1802728
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 89.9 W210CF Greenville
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Join our team! Public Radio East is hiring a Financial & Development Associate.
US

Opioid Epidemic Hits Neonatal ICUs

NPR
Published December 31, 2015 at 1:20 PM EST
Physician performing a physical exam on a newborn baby after a Caesarean section. (Wikimedia Commons)
Physician performing a physical exam on a newborn baby after a Caesarean section. (Wikimedia Commons)

This week we’ve been looking at how the headlines of 2015 have hit home.

The opioid epidemic is certainly one of the top stories of 2015, new numbers from the CDC show that deaths from overdoses reached an all-time high of 47,000 in 2014, the latest figures available. And hospital neonatal intensive care units across the country are seeing a corresponding rise in the number of babies born dependent on opioids.

Here & Now’s Robin Young speaks with Dr. Robert DiGiuseppe, a neonatologist at Coastal Carolina Neonatology at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Guest

  • Dr. Robert DiGiuseppe, a neonatologist at the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

US