ORANGE PARK, Fla. – HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital on Saturday hosted its ninth annual NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) reunion.
The hospital puts on this carnival every year to welcome families back and reconnect with staff who helped care for their precious babies.
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Six-year-old Lucio is a first grader full of life and a whole lot of great energy.
He was at the reunion with his parents and a special friend, Michelle Oquinn, a NICU clinical nurse coordinator.
“He is just a spitfire,” Oquinn said. “He is just full of life and so so smart. I am so blessed to be a part of his journey.”
Oquinn and Lucio go back six years to the day he was born.
Lucio was born prematurely at 34 weeks and seven pounds. He spent just shy of two weeks in the NICU at HCU at NCA Florida Orange Park Hospital.
“He had to learn how to breathe, swallow, and suck at the same time,” Scheila Rodriguez, his mother, said. “He was not able to eat on his own.”
That’s why they all said this reunion means so much to them.
“She gets to see the baby that she helped get out of a health crisis that he had when he was born,” Rodriguez said. “It is very imperative that we come to support.”
Chad Patrick, the hospital’s CEO, said between 300 and 400 babies end up in its NICU every year.
“There are things that are very, very exciting that happen and then there are things that are very tough to deal with sometimes,” Patrick said. " A lot of these are emergency events and people are not prepared for them. Even our staff have sometimes. It is an exciting time for the staff to reunite with great memories that they can remember."
It’s all love and joy here, and for Lucio, one word sums it up.
“Happy, yeah happy,” he said.