Nearly 200 former patients and family members attended an alumni reunion sponsored by the Allison Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Yale New Haven Children”™s Hospital campus at Bridgeport Hospital, a 383-bed acute care facility.
The event gave the unit”™s staff an opportunity to catch up with former patients and their parents. Typical patients were 2-year-old twins Matis and Julia Silva of Bridgeport who were brought by their parents Eli and Felixmar. The twins each weighed barely one pound when born.
The NICU is undergoing a $7 million renovation to provide more patient and family privacy and add other features designed for family comfort. The work, funded entirely through community donations, is scheduled to be completed in December. A total of $6 million has already been raised, according to the Bridgeport Hospital Foundation.