Last week marked World Prematurity Day, during which, as they do every year, the NICU staff at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center set up a table with refreshments and decorated the entrance area with balloons for the parents of the tiny patients in the unit – a true tradition.
This week, Ori Lankri and her mother, Tal Lankri-Sasson, also came to join the celebration. For them, it's also an annual tradition, but of a different kind. "We come to visit the Hillel Yaffe NICU every year on Ori's birthday. It's part of our regular routine, something that's very important for us," Tal said with a smile and tearing up a bit as she recalled her daughter's first days. "She was born at 26 weeks. A tiny baby weighing 866 grams – less than a bag of sugar. Everything was unexpected and very frightening for me and my husband Kfir, as this was our firstborn daughter. We spent 11 nerve-wracking weeks here, with many ups and downs, and today here she is - celebrating her bat mitzvah. We come here every year on her birthday, but since it’s her bat mitzvah year, which is special in and of itself, everything takes on even more significance."
Ori Lankri and her mother, Tal, with the NICU staff at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center
The medical staff, most of whom Tal know well, greeted Tal and Ori with hugs and kisses and a birthday cake on which a photo of Ori had been printed in advance – a tiny baby with a pacifier in the incubator, next to a photo from last month showing her as a girl in a white dress, almost as tall as her mother.
When Tal is asked why they actually come every year, she said, "It's important to us that the staff who supported us with so much professionalism and personal attention see the result their hard work. To show that she's okay, that we're okay. As far as we're concerned, nothing in life is a given. Showing them how she's grown fills everyone with so much positive energy. We come every year to visit the staff. Dr. Hochberg, Dr. Foldy, Dr. Nadir, Nurit, Orly, who's here now, and all those who cared for her and had a part in her being here – it’s just really so important to us."
The staff suggested that Ori take a tour of the unit, perhaps speak with some of the worried parents sitting by the bassinets, so anxious and concerned. The Newborn and Neonatal Care Department Director, Dr. Amit Hochberg, and Deputy Head Nurse, Nurit Shleif, introduce Ori and Tal to two mothers in the NICU, and both are very emotional. One thanks them for the brief and encouraging meeting; the other shares that she too was born premature and lets out the requisite "wow" when she sees a NICU “graduate” right in front of her.
Ori Lankri in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center. Photo courtesy of the family
"My parents always told me the story of my birth: how worried they were about me and how tiny I was," Ori said. "About the first time they took me out of the incubator, my first bath in the NICU. When I see now how small the babies here are, it's hard to believe I was that size.”
On the way out of the unit, the staff gives Ori a small gift – a delicate necklace with a golden star. After all, she's celebrating her bat mitzvah. Dr. Hochberg congratulates her and thanks her and her mother for the special visit. "It really energizes us and lifts our spirits to see her. To hear that she loves to draw and dance and that her bat mitzvah was a cool costume party. These are the days and visits that make all the difference for us."
Ori and Tal say goodbye to the staff, with more hugs and kisses, a few more memories from back then. Then they head home to Kfar Kish in the north, until next year's birthday visit.
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