A Naperville doctor and his wife are the inspiration behind a new serenity suite to help grieving families at Edward Hospital.
Seeking solace after pregnancy loss
After losing their son Liam during pregnancy in 2018, Dr. Nick Love and his wife Melissa Mickey wanted to help provide better for other parents in a similar situation.
“We lost him in the womb, but they had to deliver him, unfortunately,” said Dr. Love, a physician With Endeavor Health. “We were at Northwestern downtown and we were in a contact isolation room at the time and it was on postpartum (floor) so like, next door families with babies, and I just remember thinking like, there’s got to be a better thing than this.”
In the months to follow, Dr. Love would seek solace with the help of Edward Hospital’s SHARE program, which provides emotional support for parents who’ve lost a child. In the process of grieving, Dr. Love came up with the idea of a serenity suite for the hospital.
What is a serenity suite?
The serenity suite is a bereavement room where parents and families can gather in solitude after experiencing ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death.
“They can take a breath and take in, unfortunately, what’s happened and stay away from everyone else in the hospital and take it to themselves,” said Dr. Love.
“I’ll never forget, I got an email saying, “I want to build a room in his honor,” said Susan Villa RN, coordinator, specialty programs – perinatal bereavement, Edward-Elmhurst Health. “I want his name on that wall.”
Hoping for the room to open by 2019, the project got pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic but was revisited a few years later.
Liam’s legacy
Finally. after six years of planning and fundraising, Dr. Love’s vision came to fruition with the financial support of the Edward Foundation. What was once part of the hallway in the south building of Edward Hospital has become an entirely new room across from the NICU. Dedicated in honor of Dr Love’s son, the serenity suite opened this past December.
“The first time I walked up and saw my son’s name, I broke down a little bit,” said Dr. Love. “My wife and I couldn’t have been happier when that time came. It’s good to know that other people will benefit from it at their worst time.”
Within the room, there’s a journal where grieving parents can leave messages of support for others and a mural of butterflies, symbolic of healing and hope.
“There are so many parents that had a hand in making this room come to be so that their babies could touch other lives,” said Villa. “And I know for Nick and Melissa, Liam’s name and Liam’s legacy is just priceless.”
That legacy is meant to heal the hearts of grieving parents for many years to come.
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