Central DuPage Hospital NICU party helps parents, children celebrate
On the surface, it looked like any other children's Halloween party.
Children dressed in disguises ranging from the classic witch costume to the more modern Iron Man armor danced around to songs like “Monster Mash.” Others sat at the crafts table making handprints and playing with glitter and markers.
But for the 125 families who gathered Sunday for the 24th annual reunion of patients from Central DuPage Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, it was a time to reflect on health and better times.
“It's like coming back home to all the nurses and doctors that helped them get better,” said Colleen Bailey, a Schaumburg mother of triplets born premature at 24 weeks and six days.
The babies spent 3 1/2 months in the NICU. Now healthy 8-year-olds, two of the triplets, Connor and Paige, ran around in costumes from the movie “Avatar” while their sibling Erin dressed as a witch. They've come to the event for the last seven years.
“They've kind of grown up with us, which is great,” said Sue McCoy, director of the NICU.
Other hospitals may have events like this, but few host them during October and take advantage of Halloween.
The NICU staff cares for sick premature infants, and not many expectant parents give their unit much thought.
“You deliver, and you're expecting to have a normal pregnancy, you're anticipating them going to college, you don't ever think that you're going to stop off at the NICU. It's very stressful thing for them,” McCoy said.
It was a learning experience for Winfield's Andrew and Nancy Kucienski. Their younger daughter, Allison, was born in April, but at a slight 5 pounds, 11 ounces, and six weeks early with bilateral club feet. She also struggled to breathe.
“We were all upset and scared to death,” her mother said.
While Allison still comes in to the hospital for checkups while wearing leg braces, she's doing better. Her flower costume hid her little tuft of brown hair. She was all smiles Sunday, now weighing 17 pounds.
“The people that work here are awesome,” said her father. “Sometimes I wonder if the NICU is more for helping the parents through it as much as it is for the child.”
Meanwhile, Allison's older sister, 7-year-old Grace, danced to the beat to the steel drum band playing while in her butterfly costume. The event gives a chance for siblings to celebrate, as well. Parents hugged their nurses and doctors, ever thankful for the moment.
“You'd never know there's anything wrong with her now,” Nancy Kucienski said of her younger daughter.