Dr. Sheldon B. Korones

Dr. Sheldon B. Korones truly made a difference in the lives of thousands of Mid-South families by saving critically ill newborns.

He died Wednesday morning, leaving a continuing legacy in the work of the Sheldon B. Korones Newborn Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. He was 89.

Dr. Korones founded the center in 1968 in an effort to improve the odds for babies in a county with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation. That rate has fallen over the years, dropping in 2011 for the first time to fewer than 10 deaths per 1,000 live births. But this doctor and humanitarian saw something more than grim statistics. Dr. Korones saw the inequality in the gap between the care critically ill infants received in private hospitals and in the public hospital.

He founded the newborn center, one of the oldest and largest neonatal intensive care units in the United States, to close that gap. More than 45,000 premature babies have been treated there successfully, some weighing just one pound, according to The Med.

That means 45,000 sets of parents were spared the grief of losing a newborn child and 45,000 children were given the opportunity to experience the joys of childhood and, for most, a fruitful adult life.

Some 1,300 critically ill newborns a year get that chance, because Dr. Sheldon B. Korones cared.