Health Watch: Babies Celebrate First Halloween At HUP
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - There was a special Halloween party on Friday at a Philadelphia hospital, where there were no tricks, just treats and plenty of love.
Thirty-five babies in the intensive care nursery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, along with their families and hospital staff, are celebrating the babies first Halloween.
Jayson the tootsie roll, tiny turtles London and Logan and Massa the little flower are among the babies who got dressed up to celebrate the spooky holiday.
"They're so tiny and they're still having a little first Halloween," said Lashae Hicks, a mother. She dressed up, with her son, while visiting her little witch in the nursery, Naziya.
Families and staff joined together to make this holiday fun and special for the babies in the intensive care unit at HUP. They are too sick to go home for Halloween, so nurses created their own little pumpkin patch and put out snacks for families to have a little bit of fun.
"To have a day that we can let loose, and have fun for them, it means a lot to them. And to have the babies be treated you know just like normal babies, and not as if they're sick, dress them up and have fun," said Jessica Nally, a nurse at Penn.
Even twins Emmanuel and Emani, born weighing about one pound, are part of the celebration. Their mother Diamond is appreciative for a day like today.
"It's just a beautiful thing that the doctors and nurses actually give the children this opportunity even being so young, and so prematurely - it's a good thing," said Diamond.
The nurses tell us the babies' parents aren't usually able to participate in a lot of their day to day care, so Friday's Halloween party, allows them to be more involved.
Reported by Stephanie Stahl, CBS 3; Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio
