Dozens of families reunited with many of the Hopkins caregivers who tended to them and their newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Many of its former patients clung to parents, toddled and ran in the Turner Building concourse at Hopkins Children’s annual NICU Reunion, on July 24.

“She looks wonderful,” said NICU fellow Francesca Miquel, holding a very active Sophia Brawner, 1, one her former patients. “It's wonderful to see them looking so healthy and happy. It’s what keeps you going.”

Parents returned the love. Keith Hutchins (pictured, above, with wife Yolanda and daughter Rachel) brought a bouquet of flowers for his daughter’s primary NICU nurse, Rebecca Gardner. “We were so looking forward to seeing her again,” said Hutchins, who discovered that an injured knee had kept Gardner from the celebration that day.

Their daughter, Rachel, born two months early, weighed 3.2 pounds when she was born in June of 2007. She spent nearly the first two months of life in the NICU battling pneumonia and multiple infections. Rachel’s "health and progress," they say, are “testament to God’s love, prayer and the power of modern medicine.” 

NICU Fellow Fancesca Miquel, M.D., reunites with former patient Sophia Brawner, 1.   Born in the fall of 2007, former NICU baby Patrick Masterman was all smiles and looking robust in the  arms of his father, Scott, at the NICU's 2008 reunion at Johns Hopkins.