For the 34th consecutive year, former Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients and their families, doctors and nurses came together to celebrate Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s tiniest former patients at the annual NICU graduation party.
Held on Sunday, September 25, the event was fun for all with activities including a bird show – complete with bike-riding birds – as well as bubble art, a petting zoo and entertainment from Violet the Clown.
Guests at the party included former patients of all ages, from babies just a year out of the NICU to teenagers who return year-after-year to thank the doctors and nurses who cared for them as preemies long ago. One former patient in attendance was 27-year-old Joshua Lukas, who was born prematurely in August of 1989, diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and transferred to the Stanford NICU where he became the 31st baby to be placed on the lifesaving treatment, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Today, he is a fourth-year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine and is applying to residency programs in Neurology with a goal to care for babies with perinatal neurological pathologies.
Former NICU patient Joshua Lukas with William Rhine, MD, who cared for him as a preemie 27 years ago.
“I am alive because Stanford physicians saved my life 27 years ago,” said Lukas. “It has been my lifelong dream to come full circle by becoming a physician at Stanford and to one day care for patients in the same way Stanford physicians cared for me as a baby.”
Nurse Roberta Harryman, co-chair of the event, has been caring for NICU babies for nearly 35 years. “This annual event is a great celebration of life for the Packard Children’s NICU community. These special families look forward to seeing the nurses and doctors who cared for their children, and sharing with us how well they are thriving today,” she said. “It is rewarding for us to see the positive results of our contributions at the hospital.”
For the Perna family, the grad party was an opportunity to reflect on the progress their daughters have made over the last year. Born prematurely in 2015, twins Gracyn and Alex spent the first five weeks of their lives in the NICU and PICN (Packard Intermediate Care Nursery). Now, as they near their first birthdays this week, they are happy, healthy and thriving.
NICU Nurses Lynn and Amy visit with the Perna family – twins Gracyn and Alex, 4-year-old brother Austin, and parents Jamie and Joe – nearly one year since the girls graduated from the NICU.
“This reunion means a lot to everyone involved,” said William Benitz, MD, chief of neonatology and leader of a team that provides nationally recognized care for approximately 1,200 of the more than 4,500 babies born at Packard Children’s each year. “The families of NICU babies experience an emotional rollercoaster during the first days and weeks of their children’s lives, and by being with others who have endured the same challenges, they’re able to establish lifelong connections.”
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