{"id":452929,"date":"2026-10-01T06:56:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452929\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T06:56:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:56:47","slug":"umc-celebrates-little-miracles-at-annual-nicu-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452929\/","title":{"rendered":"UMC celebrates \u2018little miracles\u2019 at annual NICU reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; The Lubbock-Cooper Liberty indoor practice facility was filled with people celebrating big milestones on Saturday as University Medical Center hosted its annual Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) reunion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Around 200 people gathered to celebrate the hospital\u2019s NICU graduates\u2014children who once started life fighting in the hospital isolette, some weighing as little as two pounds, now running, jumping, and playing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The afternoon was filled with laughter as kids enjoyed miniature golf, games, and even climbed inside a miniature AeroCare helicopter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Organized each year by UMC\u2019s dedicated NICU nurses, the event gives families and caregivers a chance to reunite and celebrate the tiny fighters who can say they have \u2018mastered the NICU.\u2019 Alongside the joyful reunion, nurses also set up a table of candles to remember and honor the families who have lost a baby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">UMC CEO and President, Mark Funderburk, was also at the reunion. He thanked everyone for supporting the Children\u2019s Miracle Network , noting that every dollar donation stays here to help the kids at UMC Children\u2019s Hospital. <\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; The Lubbock-Cooper Liberty indoor practice facility was filled with people celebrating big milestones on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,60554,170,169,40847,155667,3149,155668,20373],"class_list":["post-452929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-cooper-liberty","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-nicu","tag-nicugraduates","tag-reunion","tag-tiny-fighters","tag-umc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}