WACO, Texas (KWTX) - For more than three decades, Central Texas families facing critical, unexpected complications after childbirth have found a fighting chance right here at home.

September marks Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Awareness Month, and Baylor Scott & White Medical Center - Hillcrest marks 36 years of providing specialized, life-saving care to the community's tiniest and most vulnerable patients.

Dr. Darrell Wheeler, a neonatologist who has been with Hillcrest's NICU since it first opened 36 years ago, has witnessed firsthand how medical innovations have transformed outcomes for premature infants.