Last winter a family had twins born at 26 weeks gestation en route to the hospital. They were brought to our NICU. Unfortunately one of the twins passed away a couple of days after birth. During this stay, the staff all got to know the parents very well and they shared with the staff that their son who would have been 10 years old this year passed away when he was five. Dara was caring for this family one day and the mom was telling her that the next day would have been their son's 10th birthday. Every year they let off red balloons to send to heaven for him. Dara asked if her husband was going to be here to help release the red balloons. She said that he would not because he had to work and she would go out by herself and release them to their son. Dara took note of this and decided that she was not going to let this mom, whose family all lived in another state, release the balloons by herself. Dara told the mom that she would meet her at the park and be with her. Other staff in the NICU heard about this and wanted to support this mom. These nurses, on their day off, met the mom at the park and all released balloons up to heaven for the son who would have been 10 and also some for the baby that had recently passed away. The mom told them that their son always liked spaghetti for his birthday, so after the balloon release as a fitting tribute, they all went out to lunch with her for spaghetti.


Project Lead - Dara Buckendahl, RN
Shannon Becher-Kulwicki, RN
Michaela Heng, RN
Mary Crowe, RN
Laurie Ketterl, RN