The Odum family’s crisis spans two kinds of specialized care in Oklahoma City: treatment for a mother with terminal illness and intensive care for a premature newborn with multiple malformations. Cameron Odum has been traveling between the hospital room of his wife, Robbinjo, and the incubator of their daughter, Hazeljo. Robbinjo is being treated for necrotizing pancreatitis, while Hazeljo was born with bladder exstrophy, a malformation that leaves the bladder exposed outside the abdominal wall.
According to KOCO, doctors discovered Robbinjo's condition when she was 27 weeks pregnant and flew her to OU Health for treatment. Necrotizing pancreatitis, in which tissue in and around the pancreas dies, occurs in 10% to 15% of acute pancreatitis cases overall and carries a mortality rate ranging from 15% to 35% that climbs sharply when infection or organ failure sets in, according to PubMed. Acute pancreatitis during pregnancy is itself uncommon, striking roughly 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 3,000 pregnancies, and severe necrotizing cases raise the risk of preterm labor, maternal ICU admission, and fetal loss, according to research published on PMC.
Robbinjo remains hospitalized at OU Health, and KOCO reported that Cameron said her stay would continue while gastrointestinal specialists determine what is happening inside her body. Hazeljo was delivered at 35 weeks with malformations involving her gastrointestinal and urinary systems. The report said pediatric surgeons performed emergency operations to create a colostomy and mucous fistula before she was 24 hours old.
Two Hospitals, One Walkway, and a Father in Between
Hazeljo was initially treated at Oklahoma Children's Hospital OU Health, a 314-bed facility that houses the state's only ACS-verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center and Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the highest tier of specialized newborn care available in Oklahoma. The adult and pediatric campuses are connected by an indoor walkway and skywalk system known as The Path, which links buildings across North Children's Avenue and Northeast 13th Street, according to the Oklahoma Health Center. That connection has allowed Cameron to travel between his wife's hospitalization and his daughter's neonatal care, with KOCO reporting that he made as many as five to eight trips a day.
A Statewide Specialty-Care Gap
The family's treatment also reflects a broader access problem. According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health's 2025 maternal-health report, more than half of Oklahoma's counties are maternity care deserts. That underscores why families outside Oklahoma City may need to travel for high-level maternal, neonatal, and pediatric services. The two facilities serve different points in Hazeljo's care. Oklahoma Children's Hospital OU Health is providing the newborn's specialized hospital and surgical treatment, including the emergency procedures described above. Bethany Children's Health Center says its Complex Care Unit provides specialized care for children from newborns through age 20 with complex medical needs, while the center also describes itself as an inpatient pediatric rehabilitation hospital. That makes Bethany a setting for complex care and rehabilitation after, or alongside, the acute hospital treatment Hazeljo received at OU Health.
Bladder exstrophy is exceedingly rare, occurring in only about 2.15 to 3.3 per 100,000 live births in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health. The malformation leaves the bladder exposed on the outer abdominal wall alongside a separation of the pelvic bones, and treatment typically requires complex, multi-stage reconstructive surgeries beginning in infancy and sometimes continuing for years, per the same NIH research. KOCO reported that Hazeljo will undergo a series of operations as doctors work to close her bladder and reconstruct her urinary tract.
Baby Transferred as Family Awaits Answers
Hazeljo has since been transferred to Bethany Children's Hospital, roughly 10 miles west of OU Health's main Oklahoma City campus. Bethany Children's Health Center is the state's only inpatient pediatric rehabilitation hospital, offering round-the-clock complex care and therapy for children up to age 20, according to Bethany Children's Health Center. Before the move, Robbinjo and Hazeljo had the chance to see each other, KOCO reports.
The transfer reflects a broader pattern across Oklahoma, where a July 2023 report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that 37 of the state's 78 rural hospitals were at risk of closing, pushing families outside metro areas toward Oklahoma City for specialized pediatric and rehabilitative care. More than a third of Oklahomans live in non-metro areas with limited access to specialty medicine, per Bethany Children's Health Center. The center is currently building a 200,000-square-foot Outpatient Center of Excellence along Route 66, an expansion aimed at cutting wait times for complex pediatric outpatient and therapy services statewide.
Community Rallies as Father Asks for Prayers
Cameron told KOCO that he is struggling with the family's medical crisis and has asked the community for prayers. A GoFundMe campaign has also been created to help support the Odum family, according to the outlet.
Hoodline previously reported on how Oklahoma is expanding local newborn care while Level IV centers remain part of the system as maternity and pediatric specialty care becomes harder to find closer to home. For the Odum family, that centralized system now means a newborn recovering in Bethany while her mother remains hospitalized miles away, with a father walking the distance between them, uncertain what comes next for either.
