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EASE App Provides Lifeline For Family, Friends Of Hospitalized Patients

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There is an app that lets hospitals update the status of patients with pictures and video. It was recently put to the test after Hurricane Irma.

Wendy Edourd is grateful for every moment she gets with her son in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Winnie Palmer Hospital.

"His first month of life was very hard for him, because his chances were really low of surviving," Wendy Edoud said.

Jovanni was born July 1 at just 24 weeks, weighing a little over a pound.

"That's a hard thing," Zachary Chiclana, Jovanni's father, said. "Seeing your baby in an incubator and you know you that can't touch him, you can't comfort him."

Then Hurricane Irma hit Florida, putting the Orlando hospital on lockdown. Jovanni's mother and father were unable to see him in person for two days.

But the app EASE kept the parents and other ICU families updated during that difficult time.

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Nurses caring for babies snapped photos and videos during the hurricane and sent them to families waiting out the storm.

"It just made the day for them," Roxanne Baggitt, a registered nurse at Winnie Palmer Hospital. "And I think the next morning we took a little video after the hurricane, and had him waving and say Hurricane Irma that was no big deal."

Wendy and Zachary say the app gives them peace of mind.

"A little bit of light you know in a sad dark day," Jovanni's father said. "Being able to see him -- that felt really good."

Now, they are looking forward to taking their son home soon.

He's considered a miracle.

To protect patient privacy, all communications disappear after 60 seconds.

The EASE technology is currently available at 29 hospitals nationwide and the maker is talking with several hospitals in the Philadelphia area.

If patients are interested, they're encouraged to request it with their doctors.

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