Newswise — (New York City, NY, June 24, 2011) The 13th “We Believe in Miracles” reunion will take place at NYU Langone Medical Center on Sunday, June 26th. The NYU Division of Neonatology will celebrate, as it has since 1992, the success of children treated at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital and Bellevue Hospital Center.
Both Tisch Hospital and Bellevue Hospital house New York State designated centers which provide the highest level of care for pregnant women and their children. These "regional perinatal centers" provide care and oversight to greater than 30,000 infants born in New York City every year or greater than 1/4 of all the children born in New York City every year.
With over 1000 admissions and discharges annually from the NICU’s, (Neonatal Intensive Care Units), at Tisch and Bellevue Hospitals, the idea of a reunion to celebrate the lives of our most vulnerable patients makes perfect sense. Both hospitals feature an active neonatal transport program to assure safe admission to the hospitals, specialized programs in infant development, cardiac care and hypothermia care as well as a New York State designated Infant Apnea and Infant Follow-up Program.
This year’s reunion, supported by KiDS of NYU and Community of Care promises to be the largest event to date with over 1000 invitations sent out last month. At the 12th “We Believe in Miracles” reunion in 2009, there were over 500 in attendance. The celebration includes hands-on activities for the NICU graduates, live music, gifts and refreshments. It is a joyful reunion between families, NICU graduates and their physicians, nurses and medical staff.
The reunion is a joint venture of Tisch and Bellevue graduates as physicians from the Division of Neonatology and NYU School of Medicine care for children in both hospitals. Bellevue Hospital Center and NYU School of Medicine have a more than one hundred and fifty year partnership.
Among the attendees this year will Mrs. Barbara Grufferman, author of “The Best of Everything After 50,” and her daughter Sarah who will address the “graduates” and their families. Sarah was born at Tisch Hospital at only 27 weeks due to an unforeseen problem in what had been a perfectly normal pregnancy. She weighed a mere 2.2 pounds, 1 kilogram. Although relatively healthy for a pre-term baby, she was transported to the NICU at Bellevue Hospital where she remained for the next 10 weeks. There were many ups and downs, weight loss and gain and some breathing problems requiring brief use of a respirator and CPAP machine. When she weighed 4 pounds she was discharged home.
Sarah will turn 17 on June 28th, two days after this reunion and on her parents wedding anniversary. She is an active teenager entering her senior year in high school in Manhattan. An ice skater, writer, and member of a book club, she also volunteers with the Association to Benefit Children at Cassidy’s Place. Every year on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the Grufferman family brings plates of cookies to the nurses and staff at the NICU as an ongoing show of their gratitude for the care the entire family received. They have also remained close to Dr. Clarel Antoine, an obstetrician who Mrs. Grufferman refers to as “God,” and Dr. Karen Hendricks-Munoz, the director of neonatology.
We Believe in Miracles 13th ReunionSunday June 26th, 2011Noon – 3PMNYU Langone Medical Center, Alumni Hall near Farkas AuditoriumEnter at 550 1st Avenue, New York, NY For more information about the reunion kindly contact Lorinda Klein at 212.404.3533 or 917.693.4846
###About NYU Langone Medical Center:NYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one on the nation’s premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of three hospitals – Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the first rehabilitation hospital in the world; and the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nations dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology – plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousand of physicians and scientists who have helped to share the course of medical history. The medical center’s tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
About Bellevue Hospital CenterBellevue Hospital Center, established in 1736, is America’s oldest continuously operating hospital, and has a long and distinguished history of innovative contributions to public health, medical science and education. Its state-of-the-art facilities offer a wide range of medical, surgical and psychiatric services and serve as a major referral center for highly complex cases. A member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the largest municipal health care organization in the country, Bellevue is affiliated with the NYU School of Medicine.
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