Delaware Subaru ‘Shares the Love’ with Christiana Care’s NICU

Families with babies in Christiana Care’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) have one goal above all — getting their newborns healthy enough to go home.

A gift from Delaware Subaru is helping the NICU support these families during and after their babies’ hospital stay.

Part of Subaru’s annual Share the Love event, which designates funds from every Subaru sold between November and January, the $14,500 donation is for support services in the NICU. The gift marks the second year that Michael Uffner, president and CEO of Delaware Subaru and AutoTeam Delaware, and his team have chosen Christiana Care as one of their Share the Love recipients. This is the second donation to the NICU. In 2016, Uffner and his Delaware Subaru colleagues gave nearly $10,000 on behalf of Subaru’s “Share the Love” campaign.

“The people of Delaware Subaru are as compassionate as they are generous,” said David A. Paul, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Christiana Care and clinical leader of the Women and Children’s Service Line. “They understand that NICU stays can overwhelm families. Through Share the Love, the dealership champions Christiana Care’s promise to provide the best clinical care for NICU babies and critical support for their parents and caregivers.”

Such support might include education about what to expect while babies are in intensive care and when they first get home, assistance with special equipment for premature babies during and after their hospital stay, and counseling for parents and siblings during extended stays or when a baby doesn’t survive.

“Christiana Care is a pillar across our region,” said Uffner, a Christiana Care trustee since 2001 and vice chair of trustees from 2010 to 2015. “Delaware Subaru is proud to have a hand in the important work the health system does for its youngest patients and the people who love them.”

Christiana Hospital is the only delivering hospital in the state to offer a Level III NICU. The unit, fully equipped with advanced technology and expert neonatal specialists, averages 1,200 admissions a year. The average stay for a baby needing NICU care is 17 days, and can run from 48 hours to eight months. Patients come from the hospital’s delivery room, or the health system’s neonatal transport team brings them from area hospitals.

Subaru’s philanthropy comes as Christiana Care enhances its Women and Children’s services and builds a state-of-the-art facility at Christiana Hospital. Part of this expansion, targeted for completion in 2020, is a new NICU with private rooms that have areas for families to sleep. In keeping with the health system’s commitment to family-centered care, plans for the innovative, expanded facility were developed in collaboration with patients and their families.

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