Raleigh Plants and AI Innovations: Local Good News Saving Lives

Yesterday, a 60-year-old man cried in a plant shop on Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh – not from sadness, but from the joy of making pottery for the first time since high school. Meanwhile, twelve miles away in Cary, artificial intelligence developed in Wake County monitored one birth every 45 seconds across America, totaling 700,000 births in 2024.

Who is Anna Grace Fitzgerald?

Anna Grace Fitzgerald is a Raleigh native and Wake County public schools graduate who founded Copperline Plant Co at 23 W. Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh (a four-minute walk from Red Hat Amphitheater). After earning degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State (including a Master’s in Landscape Architecture), she worked in Philadelphia before returning home during the pandemic to pitch her business idea to her parents in what she describes as a “Shark Tank” presentation.

What Makes Copperline Plant Co Unique?

Located in the heart of downtown Raleigh, Copperline Plant Co has evolved from a pandemic pop-up into a thriving community hub – all without any advertising. Every customer finds the shop through word-of-mouth in 2025, a testament to its authentic community connections.

The shop, which smells of soil mixed with espresso from the neighboring café, houses hundreds of tropical houseplant species. But its real magic happens in the corner where afternoon light hits at 3 PM – that’s where pottery classes unfold, where clay gets under fingernails during conversations that can’t happen while looking at screens.

A notebook by the register contains 400 entries from customers describing what their plants mean to them. One particularly moving entry reads: “First living thing I’ve kept alive since my divorce. Month three. Still green.”

“Despite growing up here, this is the first time I’ve felt truly connected,” Fitzgerald told local reporters, highlighting how serving her hometown “feels like a privilege.”

Where is PeriGen Making an Impact?

Just twelve miles away in Cary, North Carolina (visible from the Cary Towne Center construction site), PeriGen is using artificial intelligence to revolutionize perinatal care. The company’s Vigilance system supported over 700,000 births across the United States in 2024, from rural Catawba Valley Health in Hickory, North Carolina, to major health systems like Houston’s Memorial Hermann.

Who is Karen Kolega?

Karen Kolega, PeriGen’s Chief Nursing Officer, brings years of experience as an OB nurse and holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. She describes labor and delivery units as “basically an ER for pregnant people” – a perspective that shaped PeriGen’s approach to improving maternal and infant outcomes through better monitoring.

Kolega shared a harrowing night shift story where PeriGen’s system went red on a mother whose blood pressure spiked dangerously fast. The nurse barely had time to call the code. Twenty minutes later: healthy baby, stable mom. Without that red alert, the outcome would have been very different.

How Does PeriGen’s AI Technology Work?

The Vigilance system addresses a critical gap in perinatal care. During labor, 84% of patients fall into an “indeterminate” category – neither clearly normal nor emergency status. PeriGen’s AI analyzes vital signs from both mother and baby, breaking down this gray area with color-coded alerts that help medical teams prioritize care.

Dr. Kendra Folh, Program Director of Women’s and Children’s Service Line at Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, reports remarkable results since implementing the system in October 2024. The hospital network, which delivers 32,000 babies annually, has reduced uterine tachysystole (pronounced “tack-ih-SIS-toh-lee”) by over 50% – a condition where excessive contractions can reduce blood flow to the baby and represents the leading cause of obstetric litigation.

What Connects These Wake County Stories?

Both Copperline Plant Co and PeriGen represent Wake County businesses focused on the kind of attention we’ve stopped expecting – one paying attention to neighbors, the other to heartbeats. These aren’t abstract locations but the Triangle we drive through daily, doing remarkable things we never noticed.

The FDA recently cleared PeriGen’s technology for use as early as 32 weeks gestation (down from 36 weeks), particularly significant given that 8.67% of U.S. births in 2022 were preterm deliveries occurring before 37 weeks.

Why These Stories Matter to Wake County

These overlooked stories from Wake County demonstrate how local businesses create meaningful impact far beyond typical metrics. While Fitzgerald builds community one Tuesday night terrarium class at a time (with 47-person waiting lists), PeriGen’s involvement in 700,000 births annually shows how Wake County innovation reaches families nationwide.

The approximately 700 preventable maternal deaths occurring annually in the United States – with the CDC estimating 80% could be avoided with better care – makes PeriGen’s work particularly vital. Memorial Hermann’s success, including faster response to maternal hypertension that prevents strokes, illustrates real-world impact.

The Bigger Picture

Seven hundred thousand births with Wake County technology watching over them. A corner shop in downtown Raleigh where strangers become neighbors over clay and soil, where a notebook holds 400 stories of renewal and growth. Maybe we’re not as disconnected as we think. Maybe we just stopped looking in the right places. Maybe the connections were here all along, growing quietly, like Fitzgerald’s plants, waiting for someone to notice.

These stories represent the kind of overlooked but important news happening throughout Wake County and the Triangle area. From downtown Raleigh’s unexpected community spaces to Cary’s life-saving healthcare innovations, these are the discoveries worth knowing about in our corner of North Carolina.

Join our community at https://TapYourNews.com for show email alerts and to suggest stories you think we should cover. The best local reporting often starts with neighbors who know where to look.

Transcript

[0:00] In downtown Raleigh, a shop window bursts with green, hanging baskets, leafy vines, and sunlight bouncing off clay pots.

[0:10] Inside, the air smells like fresh soil and the kind of calm you wish you could bottle. Across the country, in a hospital delivery room, a monitor beeps steadily, until suddenly, a red alert flashes on the screen, nurses lean in, the room shifts, Every decision from this moment matters. Two moments, worlds apart, but both about helping something grow. Good morning, Wake County. I’m Steve, and this is where we skip the doom, skip the drama, and start the day with stories worth waking up to. All coming to you from right here in beautiful Wake Forest. Now I know plants and babies might not seem like they have much in common, but think about it Both need the right environment, the right care, and people who know what they’re doing Who are looking out for them, And both can bring a lot of joy, and maybe a few challenges along the way, Let’s start in downtown Raleigh, just a short walk from Moore Square Where Corner Shop is helping people bring more green into their lives and more connection into their community.

[1:28] If you’ve ever strolled down West Hargett Street, maybe on your way to grab a coffee from Morning Times or maybe a sandwich from the Raleigh Times, you might have walked right past Copperline Plant Company. It’s at 23 West Hargett Street. It’s tucked into a corner that practically bursts with green from behind the windows. Now step inside. It feels like the air changes. There’s a calmness, partly from the plants and partly from the light. Maybe partly from the quiet conversations happening around you. The smell is earthy and fresh, with a hint of that slightly sweet scent you get when plants have just been watered. The first thing you notice? Plants are everywhere. They’re hanging from the ceiling in macrame holders. They’re lined up along the windows, cascading off shelves. Small succulents the size of a teacup sit next to fiddly figs stretching towards the ceiling. And scattered throughout are little moments of Raleigh personality. A locally made pottery planter over there. A hand-lettered plant care sign. Nope, on the other side. And somewhere in all that greenery, you’ll probably find the owner, Anna Grace Fitzgerald.

[2:49] Anna Grace isn’t just any business owner. She’s a Raleigh native. She grew up here, went to Wake County Public Schools and spent her teenage years exploring the same streets she now runs her business on. She earned her degrees from UNC Chapel Hill and NC State, including a master’s in landscape architecture, and then headed to Philadelphia to work in her field. She says she loved the experience, but it never quite felt like home. And then the pandemic hit. Like so many people, she found herself rethinking what mattered, and that’s when she came back to Raleigh and pitched an idea to her parents.

[3:32] I did a kind of shark tank thing to my parents, she laughs. I said, hey, I want to start a business. Can I live with you guys for a while so I can get my feet underneath me? The first version of Copperline Plant Company wasn’t the store you see today. No, it was a simple pop-up, a small selection of plants she hauled to different events, markets, and spaces around the city. But people kept showing up, and they kept asking for more. Now I have to admit, I’ve probably killed more than my share of houseplants I once bought one thinking it was indestructible It turns out I have the superpower of killing even the unkillable And walking into Copperline, I realized maybe the problem wasn’t the plant, Maybe it was me not knowing what it needed, Today, Copperline is a thriving shop that specializes in tropical houseplants But it’s also a gathering place There’s a book club that meets regularly, DIY workshops on things like candle making, pottery, and macrame Events with other local makers Turning the store into a hub of creative energy Anna Grace says the community aspect is just as important as the plants, Plants have always been a way for me to reconnect And make a space feel like home, she says To do that in my hometown It feels like a privilege.

[5:00] And she’s quick to point out that buying a house plant isn’t as simple as You just pick one you like and take it home, No, Copperline’s staff talks to customers about their space and their light and their schedule, We have a couple hundred species in here, Anna Grace says Not every plant is going to be happy everywhere You walk out with a plant, yeah But you also walk out with that feeling that you’re part of something growing, Right here in Raleigh.

[5:34] Now we’re heading about 15 miles west to Cary, where another kind of growth is happening. It’s not in soil or sunlight, but in a place where the stakes couldn’t be higher. The delivery room. When everything goes right during childbirth, it’s pure joy. But when things go wrong, minutes, even seconds, Can make all the difference in the world, That’s where Paragen, a Cary-based tech company, comes in They’ve developed artificial intelligence software That helps doctors and nurses monitor moms and babies during labor And last year, their system supported more than 700,000 births across the country.

[6:22] Karen Kolga, Paragen’s chief nursing officer, spent years as a labor and delivery nurse. People think we’re just up there rocking babies, she said, but your labor and delivery area is basically an ER for pregnant people. The challenge? Most patients don’t fall neatly into everything’s fine or we have a crisis. They’re in that gray area called indeterminate. And different clinicians can interpret those cases differently Paragen software helps by analyzing all that data in real time Looking for subtle signs of trouble It then gives the care team a color-coded alert Green for normal, yellow for potential issues And red for urgent assistance needed I mean, picture this, it’s 2 in the morning a mom’s contractions start coming too fast and too close together. The baby’s oxygen supply is at risk. Without the software, it might take several minutes for someone to notice the pattern. With it, an alert pops up instantly and the team can act right now.

[7:34] The impact is real. At Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, which does about 32,000 deliveries a year, Using Paragen software has cut by about 50% The number of cases where labor speeds up too much and too quickly Making it harder for the baby to get oxygen that they need They’ve been able to treat high blood pressure in mothers faster Preventing strokes, And just recently the FDA approved Using Paragen’s fetal monitoring technology Starting at 32 weeks of pregnancy Giving high-risk moms and babies more weeks of protection, A company here in Cary in Wake County Is playing a role in hundreds of thousands of births From rural community hospitals To some of the most advanced labor and delivery centers In the country.

[8:28] On the surface, a plant shop in downtown Raleigh and an AI software company in Cary couldn’t be more different. I mean, one deals in leaves and soil and the other in algorithms and medical alerts. But both are about giving living things the best possible chance to thrive. And both show how people in our community, whether they’re tending plants or coding software, can make life just a little better, a little safer,

[8:56] and a lot more connected. In the end, it’s the same story told two ways. Care, attention, and a willingness to act before it’s too late. Whether it’s a leafy green in your kitchen or a newborn taking their first breath. What we nurture today shapes the world we wake up to tomorrow. Hey, if this made your morning brighter, I would just appreciate it and love it if you’d leave me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like an email when each new episode drops, you can sign up at tapyournews.com. I’m Steve, and I’ll see you next time for more good news from right here in Wake County. See ya!