Edward Hospital's NICU Reunion Sunday, October 18

Hundreds of “graduates” of Edward Hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are expected to attend the hospital’s biennial NICU reunion on Sunday, October 18, 2–5 p.m. at the DuPage Children’s Museum, 301 N. Washington St. in Naperville.

The reunion celebrates each child’s progress, enables parents to meet other NICU families, and gives doctors and nurses an opportunity to see many of the babies they cared for in the NICU. The event is limited to those families who have had babies in Edward’s NICU. Registration is required. For more information and to register, call (630) 527-6363.

Edward’s Level III NICU is able to treat the sickest and most fragile newborns of all gestational ages, including those with a variety of congenital and surgical conditions. Edward’s NICU has cared for more than 7,500 babies since it opened in the 1990s, when it was known as a Special Care Nursery. Children from the first NICU Class of 1996 are now 18-19 years old.

Edward’s NICU is the largest in DuPage County and treats 400 babies a year, a number which increases every year. The hospital was also the first in the region to offer private NICU rooms. The 22 rooms provide parents with space and comfort, and are equipped with the latest technology that allows specially trained neonatologists and nurses to closely monitor each newborn.

Patients treated in Edward’s NICU have included:

• “Baby Zoe,” Zoe Koz, now 11 years old, was born on January 6, 2004 as one of the world’s smallest babies at 305 grams (10.8 ounces). At the time, Zoe was the ninth smallest baby in the world to survive, the third smallest in the U.S. and the smallest in DuPage County.

• The Horton quintuplets, born on October 11, 2004. Four surviving babies – Caitlynn, Coira, Lachlan and Porter – are approaching their 11th birthdays.

• The Medrano quadruplets – Alexander, Alessandro, Michael and Ysabell – were born on October 4, 2006. They were conceived naturally, without fertility drugs or treatment, the odds of which are estimated to be 1 in 512,000, according to an Edward Hospital perinatologist.

• Bella Craig was born in 2008 with a giant omphalocele, a condition in which internal organs are outside the body covered by a thin membrane. Bella left the NICU in mid-May 2008 and returned to Edward a few months later for a procedure that successfully covered and closed the omphalocele.

• Michael Gillespie was born in 2008 with a “giant omphalocele.” He also had a heart defect and his lungs weren’t fully developed because he was born 10 weeks premature. Michael spent the first 299 days of his life in Edward’s NICU.

For more information about Edward’s NICU, visit www.EEHealth.org/services/pregnancy-baby/after-delivery/nicu.