Madison Kennedy doesn’t remember the four and a half months she spent in the neonatal intensive care unit at K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital.
She’s heard from her parents and two older brothers that while it was scary, there was one particular nurse who helped them get through it. They knew her only as “Janine.”
Old photographs show only glimpses of the nurse. Her fingers holding a thermometer or her hands adjusting Madison’s breathing tubes.
“I didn’t know what she looked like because in our photos, we only had her hands. But it’s been a big wish of mine to eventually find her and reconnect with her and just say thank you for taking care of me,” said Madison, who turned 21 years old on Dec. 4.
That wish was granted last Friday when Madison reunited with Janine Buggle, who has worked in the NICU unit of K. Hovnanian for 27 years.
“It’s a full circle moment for me personally,” said Madison. “As cheesy as it is, I feel fulfilled.”
The reunion was just as sweet for Buggle, who never forgot Madison or her family.
“We always wonder what tomorrow brings for them and what they’re doing. Especially someone like Madison,” said Buggle.
Madison Kennedy spent a total of four and a half months in the NICU, the majority of it at K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital, located on the campus of Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Her photographs only show Janine Buggle’s hands.Courtesy of Christine Kennedy
Premature birth occurs when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. These babies have a higher risk of death and disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, 1 in 10 U.S. babies were born preterm. The national preterm birth rate places the U.S. among the highest of developed nations according to the March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on improving maternal and infant health.
Madison was born extremely premature on Dec. 4, 2004 at K. Hovnanian, located on the campus of Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
Her eyes were still fused shut and she struggled to breathe on her own. She needed round-the-clock care and two different procedures over the course of four and a half months.
It was a challenging time for Christine and Michael Kennedy, Madison’s parents, as they juggled daily hospital visits and raising their two other kids, who were 2½ and 1½ years old at the time.
“It was very heartbreaking for me every day to come and leave,” said Christine Kennedy in an interview. “It was very, very difficult not being there with her.”
There were several times the family got a call from the hospital warning them that Madison might not make it through the night.
“It was very hard,” said Kennedy.
It’s surreal for Madison to hear about how touch and go those early days were, when her life hung in the balance.
“It’s crazy to even think about,” Madison said.
Madison Kennedy, left, reunited with Janine Buggle in the hallways of the same NICU unit where they first met 21 years ago.Jim Lowney for NJ Advance Media
But throughout those long, hard months, Kennedy said the family was shown incredible kindness.
Buggle, who was Madison’s assigned day nurse, gave the family daily updates about what was going on. She made Madison a tiny stocking when Christmas came around. And she called them when one of Madison’s eyes opened, just as excited to share the news as they were to receive it.
The Kennedy family credits her with Madison’s survival and well-being to this day.
“It was like we all shared in this,” said Kennedy. “I never forgot her, and it was always like she’s a part of our family.”
The experience also inspired the former graphic designer to join the health care field as a certified medical assistant. Now that her kids are all grown up, the 52-year-old is going to nursing school.
“I want to give back and I want to be that nurse that someone can turn to,” she said.
Buggle didn’t know the impact she would have taking care of Madison all those years ago. She was just doing her job.
“We cry with the parents. We enjoy the milestones with the parents — something as little as the baby gaining two pounds, the first bottle coming off the ventilator or going to an open crib,“ said Buggle.
She’s received Christmas cards and notes of appreciation from former patients over the years. But no one has ever sought her out the way the Kennedy family did.
“To see Madison 21 years later — and it was on her bucket list, as she put it, to find me and thank me — it’s just a surreal feeling to know that you made such a huge impact on a family that they went through all those steps to find me,” said Buggle.
“I don’t think as a nurse you realize you’ve had such an impact. You’re just there living day to day with them,” said Buggle.