{"id":639633,"date":"2012-10-03T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.ucla.edu\/portal\/ucla\/graduates-of-neonatal-intensive-239278.aspx"},"modified":"2012-10-03T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:00:00","slug":"graduates-of-neonatal-intensive-care-unit-reunite-with-those-who-saved-their-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/639633","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Graduates&#8217; of neonatal intensive care unit reunite with those who saved their lives"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>WHAT:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>Approximately 400 former patients and their families will attend a reunion of &#8220;graduates&#8221; who were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Mattel Children&#8217;s Hospital UCLA in Westwood or UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. This is the 27th NICU reunion organized by UCLA nurses.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>The party will include activities for kids and will give nurses the chance to meet with former patients who are now thriving.&nbsp;These former patients today&nbsp;range in age from 3 months to 35 years old.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>The NICU takes care of medically fragile newborns, including micro-preemies born as early as 24 weeks&#8217; gestation and weighing only a pound or two,&nbsp;as well as&nbsp;full-term babies who are born with life-threatening illnesses.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><strong>WHEN:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>Noon&ndash;3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 7<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><strong>WHERE:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>Picnic area at UCLA&#8217;s Sunset Canyon Recreation Center (<a href=\"http:\/\/maps.ucla.edu\/campus\/?zlvl=9&amp;locid=340\">map<\/a>)<\/div>\n<div>111 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles 90095<\/div>\n<div><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>INTERVIEW | PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>The following people will be among those available at the reunion:<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Quezada family <\/strong>(Palmdale)<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Parents Manuel and Beatriz and their son 3-year-old son Daniel, who was born at 25 weeks (Manuel speaks English and Spanish)<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Weaker family <\/strong>(Sun Valley)<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Parents Jenna and Jeff and their 2-year-old son Luke, who was born at 32 weeks<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Kinsey family <\/strong>(Simi Valley)<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Parents Stacey and Scott; their 2-year-old daughter, who was born at 24 weeks; and their 9-week-old twins, who were born at 34 weeks<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Sara Van der Linden<\/strong> (Santa Paula)<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Sara, 34, was in the NICU in 1977 and has attended more than 20 NICU reunions<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Shohreh Samimi<\/strong><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">NICU unit director at Mattel Children&#8217;s Hospital UCLA<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Joyce Keeler<\/strong><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">NICU nurse at UCLA for more than 35 years<\/div>\n<div style=\"line-height: 0.5;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>BACKGROUND:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>UCLA NICUs offer the most advanced interventions available for critically ill babies, with medical and surgical specialists available 24 hours a day to address every possible physiological need. UCLA experts are also involved in extensive neonatal research, and NICU staff provide a variety of developmental interventions for infants and families Learn more about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mattel.medsch.ucla.edu\/neonatology\/nicu_westwood.html\">NICU at Mattel Children&#8217;s Hospital UCLA<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mattel.medsch.ucla.edu\/neonatology\/nicu_santa_monica.html\">NICU at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica.<\/a><\/div>\n<div><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>MEDIA PARKING:<\/strong><\/div>\n<div>Please R.S.V.P. to media contact. Parking will be available in <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.ucla.edu\/campus\/?zlvl=9&amp;locid=65199\">Lot 11<\/a> on De Neve Drive.&nbsp;Parking is $11, or show attendant media credentials for complimentary parking.&nbsp;Media trucks with placards in the window can park&nbsp;at the temporary parking spots outside Lot 11.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><strong>MEDIA CONTACT: <\/strong>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>Amy Albin | UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations | 310-794-8672<\/div>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom.ucla.edu\/rss.ashx?id=698895\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHAT: Approximately 400 former patients and their families will attend a reunion of &#8220;graduates&#8221; who were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Mattel Children&#8217;s Hospital UCLA in Westwood or UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica. This is the 27th NICU reunion organized by UCLA nurses.&nbsp; &nbsp; The party will include activities for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-639633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}