NICU celebration lets nurses, former patients reunite

Crying hasn’t ever sounded so good.

When Celine Domanskiy was born prematurely in May 2017 at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, it was under scary circumstances, and the crying signaled a positive conclusion to her birth.

Celine’s story is unique, but has commonalities with the more than 340 babies, on a yearly average, who spend time in Legacy’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

About 800 people celebrated their connections to Legacy’s NICU Saturday for the unit’s annual reunion. Legacy Spokesperson Kelly Love describes the party, which includes games, free food and discounted bike helmets as “the best school carnival you ever went to.” It’s thrown by nurses from the NICU.

“People come to the hospital, and have their best day ever and their worst day ever. For the nurses in the NICU, they see both,” Love said. “It’s a different bond they have with patients than other parts of the hospital because of the intensity.”

For the Domanskiys, who live in Camas, that intensity began when Valenteena went in for a 27-week checkup. Valenteena, 40, and her husband Stan, 35, have two other children, Abigail, 11, and Dominique, 13, and Valenteena had felt as though this was her healthiest pregnancy yet. She had learned the proper diet, and exercise routines from her previous births, and was applying those lessons this time around.

But her 27-week checkup quickly transformed positive thoughts into fears, as Valenteena discovered that her blood pressure was high. Doctors ran tests, ruled some things out and sent her home to see if she’d improve. After a few days, her blood pressure was still high, so she returned to Legacy to find out that her baby’s heart rate was dropping.

At one point, doctors even lost the heart rate for five minutes. The Domanskiys were told their baby might not survive in utero, but that having her early could cause complications, too. They prayed and decided that an immediate cesarean section was the best option.

After Celine was born, Valenteena was nervous to see Celine initially because of how tiny she was. But Celine’s first cries, especially after what the family had just been through, made Valenteena want to see her immediately.

“When I heard her cry that was the moment,” Valenteena said before Stan interrupted.

“That we both cried like babies,” Stan added.

Celine would stay in the NICU for another couple of months before she was allowed to go home. That was tough on Valenteena, who said she didn’t even really get to stroke her daughter until about two weeks after birth because Celine was still developing.

The family still visited the NICU daily, and sometimes stayed overnight. The NICU staff was comforting and understanding throughout the birthing process. Stan said they knew exactly what to say to calm the family during tense times. He once had a nurse rub his shoulders, and tell him everything would be fine.

“I call them angels in NICU, those who work there,” Stan said. “Every single one of them has such a passion for kids, such a passion for parents. We were in there 60 days, and we felt like we were VIP there, like we were superheroes. I saw that they treat every family like this.”

After Celine’s birth Stan started doing research on other premature babies, discovering that Albert Einstein was born early. Maybe the Domanskiys have a genius on their hands, but all they know right now is that their 15-month-old is healthy and happy.

She’s started talking some, has taken steps and can stand for about 10 seconds straight. The Domanskiys consider her happy, demanding and feisty.

“If something is not her way,” Stan said, “the whole house hears it.”