21-year-old reunites with NICU nurse for her birthday wish
By WABC Staff
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NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (WABC) — Last month, Madison Kennedy told her mother her 21st birthday wish was to reunite with her NICU nurse. On Friday, that wish came true.
Kennedy, who spent nearly nine weeks in the unit after being born prematurely on Dec. 5, 2004, asked her mother Christine, who works in the Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in HOPE Tower, if she could meet the nurse who took care of her during that time.
Christine has spoken to Kennedy many times about her NICU nurse, Janine Buggle.
Buggle cared for Kennedy when she was 1 pound, 3 ounces and 12 inches long, born at 22 and a half weeks.
For 30 years, Buggle has been caring for infants in the Jersey Shore’s K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital’s NICU.
On Friday, Kennedy had an emotional reunion with Buggle, who her mother credits with Kennedy’s survival and well-being.
K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital’s NICU is the first in New Jersey to achieve the Gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).
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