Positivity — A once-sickly child makes her triumphant return
Reunited: A once-sickly child makes her triumphant return to visit the hospital and staff that saved her life.
January 12, 2008 - 9:47PM
The newborn girl entered the world three months early, weighing just 1 pound 13 ounces.
Her mother, unable to care for her, gave her up for adoption. McAllen Medical Center placed her in its neonatal intensive care unit, located on the third floor.
Normally, the staff there works with new mothers, and together they care for premature babies. A combination of medical science and human touch brings the infants to full strength. The mothers bid thanks and farewell, and they leave for home.
On July 23, 2006, the preemie girl came to the third floor.
She came to the unit with no name, no family and no toys — with virtually nothing but a collection of medical problems and special needs.
On Saturday, she returned to the third floor weighing about 20 pounds. She walked through the room, she smiled and she posed for pictures. She brought with her a pair of beaming parents.
She also brought many of her former nurses to tears. In the same room where they once fought for her life, the staff of the neonatal intensive care unit reunited with the girl.
They decked out the former preemie care area with Sesame Street tablecloths and little red balloons. The girl had left the hospital after a couple adopted her last year. On Saturday, they celebrated her vibrant health.
The only baby without a toy or a name
One baby stood out.
She needed nutritional boosts and constant physician care just like the other premature newborns. But unlike them, she had no balloons, blankets or baby clothes at her bedside. She didn’t have a single toy.
Motherless, fatherless, she waited for adoption.
The nurses, the doctors and even the secretary on the preemie ward each pitched in 25 cents to buy her a plush, pink poodle that they then placed near her bed.
They had bought a toy for … Baby. Wait, they remember saying, we can’t just call her Baby. …..
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