Six years ago, Stephanie fought for her life in the NICU. Now, she and other NICU babies are celebrating with the nurses who saved them.
Premature babies born at the hospital can stay locally if they’re born at 32 weeks or more. This allows families to stay close to their support system while in the hospital.
“I feel very blessed to be able to be in a community that has a NICU because if we had to go long distance away from her and not be able to stay with her like I was able to, I would be absolutely devastated even more than I already was knowing that she had all of these medical issues,” said Margarita Poemoceah.
Poemoceah said her daughter Stephanie spent more than a month in the NICU at CCMH. She said her daughter was born with several medical problems. Poemoceah said they come to the reunion almost yearly. She said she loves seeing the people who took care of her daughter six years ago.
“That’s one of my favorite parts is seeing them, and saying ‘hi’ and letting them see Stephanie. I love it. It’s kinda like a family reunion,” she said.
Growing expertise
Dr. Vadim Ivanov is a Neonatologist. He’s been with CCMH since they opened their NICU 12 years ago. He said not only does he see the kids growing up, but he has watched the nurses grow.
“To me, it’s really great their professionalism growing. Them getting experienced nurses and learning things, equipment, and problems. I’m really proud that we did manage to grow professional nurses here who are capable of doing anything right now. So, I’m really proud of the nurses here,” Ivanov said.
He said having knowledgeable, trained NICU nurses not only helps the babies staying at CCMH but also the younger ones needing to go to a different hospital.
“The workforce here, nurse practitioners and nurses, they’re capable of keeping really sick babies alive until their air ambulance is on the ground to take the baby to the city of a higher level of care,” he said.
The kids wore costumes to the reunion and got to do several fall activities with the NICU staff. They plan on continuing their tradition next year.
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