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It's Christmas Eve, and Santa made one of his first stops today at the University Health Women's & Children's Hospital.
Santa always visits the tiniest patients, and this year, his mode of transportation was a helicopter.
Santa headed straight to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where premature babies and other infants receive 24-hour care during stays that can last from a period of days to months.
Families celebrated the babies' first Christmas with Santa.
Registered nurse Michelle Gonzales said University Health brings Santa to the NICU department every year to bring joy to the families at the holidays.
“It's a beautiful moment to be able to have these families come together and enjoy Santa and having their babies’ first Christmas, enjoying it with our NICU family,” Gonzales said.
The University Health Women's & Children's Hospital is the only hospital in South Texas that provides NICU Level IV care. That is the highest, most advanced level of care for premature babies.
The hospital owns a helicopter that provides transportation for families.
Santa’s bells jingled through the hospital corridors as he popped in and out of the patients' rooms. Nurse Gonzales took polaroid photos of Santa with the babies as a keepsake for the families.
Mari Carmen Garcia gave birth to her son, Sebastian, in her thirty-sixth week of pregnancy. She was airlifted from Del Rio to San Antonio in mid-October and the Garcia family stayed in the NICU for a month after Sebastian was born.
“We’ve been here for a month now because [Sebastian] has had three blood transfusions. He’s extremely anemic and now is just waiting to bottle-feed,” she said.
The Garcia family will be spending their first Christmas as a family of four at the Ronald McDonald’s House Charities located near the hospital. The Ronald McDonald House provides a comfortable home base for the families of children receiving medical services in San Antonio.
As soon as Sebastian is discharged from the hospital, the family will visit three church congregations.
“He is going to visit three different congregations who have been praying for him nonstop — one in Houston, one here in San Antonio and one is Del Rio,” Garcia said.
Santa spent Christmas Eve visiting 63 babies in the NICU department, taking photos and congratulating the families.
“I enjoy being their first picture with Santa and also bringing joy and hope to their families at a time that is really critical for them,” said Santa.
