DENVER, Oct. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Love for Lily, a Colorado-based non-profit organization which provides support for families with children in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) both during and after their stay, today announced the launch of support services for NICU families at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children (RMHC) at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver.
Love for Lily was founded by Sahra Cahoon, on Mother’s Day 2012 at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora, where Cahoon’s daughter Lily was born. Lily spent several months in the NICU before losing her fight for life at home in hospice. That experience led Cahoon to found Love for Lily and help families through the emotion and isolation of the NICU experience during their stay and for up to one year after they leave the NICU.
After supporting families at UCHealth for five years, Love for Lily expanded to Avista Adventist Hospital in 2017 and is now serving families at RMHC, its third location.
“We are thrilled to welcome Love for Lily to Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children,” said Julie Duty, MS, BSN, RN, NICU Director at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. “Our NICU is the largest in the Rocky Mountain region. We are also the only hospital campus in the region with the highest level of care for both high risk moms and high risk babies – all under one roof. So we often treat some of the most challenging cases. The added support is a welcome addition to our continuum of care.”
“Having a baby in the NICU is completely different from what other families experience,” Cahoon explained. “I didn’t get to even meet Lily for more than 10 hours after she was born. Families who are expecting to spend no more than a couple of days in the hospital can suddenly find themselves coming every day for weeks or even months. Our goal at Love for Lily is to support these families through their entire NICU journey,” she added.
About Love for Lily
Love for Lily was founded in Colorado in 2012 by Sahra Cahoon, after the loss of Cahoon’s daughter Lily at just four and a half months old. Love for Lily supports families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to thrive during their stay and when they return home. The organization offers a variety of support mechanisms to NICU families. Love for Lily is a 501c3 organization currently serving three hospitals in the Denver metro area and offering support group participation to any NICU family, regardless of their hospital. The organization has served thousands of families at no charge through financial support from private donations. To learn more or support Love for Lily, visit www.lflnicu.org.
About Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children
Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children (RMHC) at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center is a dedicated pediatric hospital and the anchor facility for HealthONE’s system of pediatric care. RMHC has more than 300 board-certified pediatric specialists and is home to the largest Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Rocky Mountain region. Together with the specialists at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center, they are the only campus in the Rocky Mountain region with a Level IV Maternal Program and a Level IV NICU, meaning that they are certified to provide the highest level of care for both high risk mom and baby all under one roof. In addition to their experienced high-risk maternal fetal program, the hospital is home to a world-renowned specialized center for minimally invasive surgery for infants and children, a Bone Marrow Transplant program, a pediatric sarcoma program as well as a comprehensive hematology/oncology program and a nationally renowned institute for youth sports medicine, including a center focused on concussion. RMHC has six affiliated Denver-area locations and two dedicated pediatric ERs. For more information, please visit RockyMountainHospitalforChildren.com.
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