Celebrating life

Story and photo by Thomas Warner
LRMC Public Affairs

***image1***Military families were allowed to plug back in Aug. 18 with the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit staff that spent crucial time with them in the early days immediately after birth.

Babies born prematurely or with other complications returned with their parents, siblings and scattered other family members for a reunion to celebrate life, with a backdrop of 1950s “Doo-Wop” music in one of the Ramstein Officers’ Club banquet rooms.

Musicians sang and played instruments, a comedian entertained briefly, party favors and unique door prizes were passed out and raffled, and food was served up on a banquet line for more than 100 people.

“Parents come up to us and say ‘Thank you,’ but they don’t know how easy it is for our staff to offer the care we do,” said Andrea Noggle, a Landstuhl staff member and chief organizer of the reunion. “We take special interest in every person that comes through our unit. That can be parents, family members, brothers, sisters along with the babies themselves. We care about all of them and it’s a joy for us to see all of them together for this sort of event.”

Landstuhl staff members staged a successful NIC-U reunion last year inside the hospital’s auditorium, but decided a larger area would better accommodate the event in 2007. It was a time for families to compare notes and ideas while discussing milestones and similar experiences regarding their infants’ progress.

“If we didn’t have the NIC-U at Landstuhl, these families would have to either go out on the economy to German hospitals or be flown home to receive care in the States,” said LRMC Chief of Neonatology Maj. Steve Olsen.

While health care on the German economy is often described as “stellar” by Americans who receive it, there are nonetheless language issues and visitation limitations at some facilities. Major Olsen said the neonatal ICU unit at LRMC allows for continuous visitation throughout the day and night, with the only break stoppage during shift changes. The military hospital has four neonatologists and one neonatal nurse practitioner, along with several others who staff the unit.

“We work with these very sick babies and it’s fantastic to see them come back and be able to live healthy lives,” nurse practitioner Rayne Adou said. “It’s also got to be a wonderful feeling for the parents.”

Landstuhl delivers an average of 90 to 100 babies each month, but hospital nurse manager Maj. Randy Claxton said the past few months have seen more than usual.

“We’ve been busy and this reunion is a time for many of those families to come back and mingle,” Major Claxton said. “They often will get to know each other while spending time with us and now they can see how the kids are doing.

“A reunion like this would not be possible without so many donations from companies and individuals. We’ve been planning this since January and it took a lot from Andrea and various other people to put it all together.”

Clif Gordon came to the reunion with his twin daughters, having spent a brief period with his wife in the LRMC NIC-U about two years ago.

“The service and attention we experienced was really nice,” Mr. Gordon said. “One of the twins was delivered, and then it was one hour and one minute until the other one came. I was more concerned for my wife. There is always more of a complication when you are dealing with twins than when it’s a single birth.

“They did a good job keeping me informed and making sure things were alright with me. We appreciate Landstuhl.”