Five-year-old Carmen at a recent check-up.

When Niurka Pitts’s daughter, Carmen, was born at only 25 weeks, she had to be seen by pulmonologists, neurologists and gastroenterologists, to name just a few of the specialists. Carmen weighed only 1 pound and 11 ounces and measured 12.5 inches.

“She was very tiny and a very sick baby,” said Pitts.

Pitts, who is a family support specialist for the BWH NICU and a patient partner for Brigham and Women’s Family Care Associates at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, spent months in the NICU with her baby.

She relied on her primary care physician Frances “Kitty” O’Hare, MD, now part of Brigham and Women’s Family Care Associates, for support. She discovered that O’Hare was also a pediatrician and one who specializes in caring for children with chronic illness. O’Hare joined Brigham and Women’s Family Care Associates after Martha Eliot Health Center in Jamaica Plain closed to adult patients.

“I knew her and already had a relationship with her,” said Pitts. “When I learned she could care for my daughters as well, it was an easy decision.”

In addition to treating Pitts and her daughter, O’Hare also cares for Pitts’ Spanish-speaking parents and her husband at the practice, which is a unique family-centered approach to primary care.

Pitts says she is grateful that she and her family can all receive care in one place. “I’m very busy. My child has complex medical issues, my parents have their own medical issues and I work two jobs, so I don’t have a lot of time to navigate around.”

Today, Pitts’s daughter is healthy and well. “She is a five-year-old doing everything that a five-year-old should be doing at her age.”

Physicians at Brigham and Women’s Family Care Associates are currently accepting new pediatric patients. To make an appointment for your child, call 617-983-7025 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Appointments are conducted in English or Spanish.