(CHICAGO) – Rush University Medical Center is welcoming back former patients of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and their families for the 35^th annual Rush Children’s Hospital Preemie Picnic.  The event will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, September 20, in the second floor cafeteria of the Armour Academic Center, located on the Rush campus at 600 S. Paulina St.

Hundreds of former NICU patients and their families, like 18-year-old Monica Degenhart and her mother Marguerite from Naperville, Ill., will have the opportunity to reunite with their doctors and nurses for a fun-filled afternoon.

For Monica, who was hospitalized in the Rush NICU for six months in 1991, this is a rare and special opportunity to meet and thank the doctors and nurses who took care of her more than 18 years ago.  According to her mother Marguerite, Monica was born 14 weeks early and weighed barely one and a half pounds.

“She was so critically ill and we were very worried for her since her twin sister Mary Beth didn’t make it,” said Marguerite.  “Seeing her now, you would never have guessed she was so sick when she was an infant.  She’s our miracle."

Marguerite was put on bed rest and had to undergo an emergency c-section when she went into early labor.  Monica was born with respiratory distress syndrome and developed chronic lung disease.  She was put on a ventilator for eight weeks.

Now, Monica is a star high school student and plays the flute in her high school band.

“I’m looking forward to the Preemie Picnic to show everyone how well I am doing,” said Monica.  “I plan on bringing pictures of me when I was a baby.”

During the Preemie Picnic, there will be live music from Practice with a Purpose from Old Town School of Folk Music, games and refreshments. Community service organizations like March of Dimes, Kids in Danger, Rush Adolescent Family Center, American Red Cross and Rush Mother’s Milk Club will be on hand to provide health education and information. 

Free parking will be available in the Rush parking garage accessed on Harrison Street.  Parking will be validated at the event and registration is not required. 

For more information about the picnic please contact Jennifer Paulsen by email, Jennifer_Paulsen@rush.edu or phone (312) 942-2153.

The Section of Neonatology at Rush University Medical Center provides comprehensive care for critically ill newborns and infants, including consultation, transport and intensive care. Neonatologists — available 24 hours a day — are all board-certified and actively involved in cutting-edge treatment and research. Rush provides care for the complete range of neonatal and infant critical illnesses, including all types of respiratory, surgical, cardiac, genetic, renal, neurological, hematological and metabolic diseases.

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RushUniversity Medical Center includes the 674-bed (staffed) hospital; the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center; and Rush University (Rush Medical College, College of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and the Graduate College).

Rush is currently constructing a 14-floor, 806,000-square-foot hospital building at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Congress Parkway. The new hospital, scheduled to open in 2012, is the centerpiece of a $1 billion, ten-year campus redevelopment plan called the Rush Transformation, which also includes a new orthopedics building (to open in the Fall 2009), a new parking garage and central power plant completed in June 2009, renovations of selected existing buildings and demolition of obsolete buildings