U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin Visits Silver Cross NICU, Leaves Impressed

NEW LENOX, IL — The soon-to-be-open Amy, Matthew and Jay Vana Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Silver Cross Hospital attracted some VIPs Wednesday. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, state Senator Michael Hastings and Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant were there for a tour of the only Level 3 NICU in Will County, and they were each impressed by what they saw.

"It's remarkable," Durbin said. "The equipment that's going to be here, the approach to care that's being used is novel and I believe is really going to set a standard for quality of care."

Durbin and his fellow Illinois counterpart in the U.S. Senate, Tammy Duckworth, helped secure $500,000 in federal funding for the NICU. The overall price tag for the NICU that features 24 private rooms, a family lounge and dedicated rooms for parents to spend the night and be intimately involved in their baby's care is $12.9 million. The NICU is expected to open in early summer.

Patch was given a tour of the Amy, Matthew and Jay Vana Neonatal Intensive Care Unit April 8 during a formal dedication.

• Related: Neonatal ICU Expected To Open in May At Silver Cross In New Lenox

Having a NICU at Silver Cross means that families in the area who have children born prematurely and full-term babies with congenital disorders will not have to spend hours traveling for care, a tremendous relief for those families, Durbin said.

"If you've ever been a parent of a newborn with a serious health condition, you want to do everything in your power to help them. I know. I've been there," Durbin said.

He later went on to share how he and his wife discovered that the couple's first-born daughter had a congenital heart defect, which they only found out about a few weeks after she was born.

"So, when the staff here started saying, 'This is the family lounge. This is where the families sit [at the Silver Cross NICU],' I've been in those lounges as a parent, and as my wife was, too," Durbin said. "And you never feel more vulnerable in your life than when your child is sick."

Durbin said he sensed that there was "a real sensitivity to the parents here, the need to make them part of the healing of this child so that they feel like the hospital doesn't treat them as people who need to be shunned and excluded but as part of the team so that they end up with a good result.

"So, yes, I did have a personal experience with my wife, and I'll never forget it."

Hastings also had shared positive thoughts about Silver Cross and the NICU. He said people in Will County will now be able to "get the health care they deserve and expect right here at home" thanks to the State's "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in investments of the NICU.

"This is an exciting time for Will County. It's an exciting time for the south suburbs," Hastings said. "... To combine forces here at Silver Cross Hospital to make sure that folks who have children and something extreme happens to their children at birth, they can get the care they need. Nothing is better than that."

The Silver Cross Foundation will hold a fundraiser to benefit the new Amy, Matthew and Jay Vana Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Silver Cross Hospital. The event, "Celebrating New Beginnings," will be held on from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 28 at CD&ME, 23320 S. LaGrange Road in Frankfort.

Tickets for the Silver Social are $125 and include lunch, raffle and program featuring the reveal of the NICU. Raffle tickets will be sold at the event for chances to win a variety of experiences, services and items. Participating and Underwriting Sponsorships are also available and range between $500 and $10,000 and include pre- and post-event recognition and event tickets.

Purchase Silver Social tickets and sponsorships at www.silvercross.org/giving/events/silver-social or by contacting the Silver Cross Foundation at (815) 300-7105.