Johns Hopkins Hospital recently threw a party in the basement atrium of the Ross Building on its East Baltimore campus -- and Daniel Grossman was 45 minutes late. Nobody took offense. He has earned the right to be behind schedule.
The party was a premature-baby reunion that attracted more than 125 "graduates" of the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Thirteen-year-old Daniel left NICU (pronounced nick-you) with high honors: He is Hopkins' smallest-ever preemie, having weighed in at a feathery 360 grams, just three quarters of a pound.
Today Daniel is a wide-eyed kid with wire-rim glasses and an outgoing personality who has been known to introduce himself to hospital staffers by breathlessly saying, "Hi, I'm Daniel. I was born premature and I had a breast implant for one of my pillows."
That's true, although his nurses actually used the jelly-like silicon inserts as a makeshift waterbed.
"He was the size of three sticks of margarine," recalls NICU nutritionist Jeanne Cox, "and weighed about the same."
It's a miracle Daniel is alive. But, then, the reunion room was filled with similar success stories. Six-foot-one-inch tall Mark Bernard, 25, who lives within walking distance of the hospital, was the oldest of the returning alumni. He has come a long way -- to be precise, from 1 pound, 12 and a half ounces to 230 pounds.
Grant Swann Jr., was on hand, too, but oblivious to the face-painting, game-playing and picture-taking going on around him. Grant was born in April, two and a half months premature; perfectly healthy except for the fact that when he cried he had bone-dry eyes. His tear ducts hadn't formed yet. His grandmother, Sharon Swann, of Baltimore, says the sprinklers come on regularly now, especially when Grant's hungry.
"He eats every three hours," says Swann. "It's like having a clock."
'Babies are resilient'
Maryland has two "Level Four" NICUs (at Hopkins and at the University of Maryland Medical Center) equipped to perform neonatal surgery. They admit the most delicate patients. There are a dozen Level Three NICUs capable of handling most other at-risk premature babies. Almost all those facilities hold preemie reunions. They're a welcome release for families and NICU personnel.
"It's just a very scary, traumatic time," says Brenda Hussey-Gardner, coordinator of the NICU follow-up program at University of Maryland Medical Center, "and there's a close bond that develops."
