A woman recently walked into Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and saw a stranger holding her baby.
The stranger appeared to be an older, kind-looking man. He was sitting in a chair, gently rocking Logan, her infant son.
Logan was in the NICU for six weeks after being born prematurely and required 24-hour care. His mother was present as often as she could, but as she was on her way to the hospital that morning, the man, David Deutchman, stepped in.
He’s known as the “ICU Grandpa.” And he’s been offering snuggles as a hospital volunteer for the past 12 years.
He visits the PICU on Tuesdays to hold babies whose parents are unable to be with them that day. He makes rounds in the NICU on Thursdays. Logan’s mother took the photo while fighting back happy tears.
Logan has been a patient at our facility for six weeks. Every night, his mother returns home to be with his older sister. She drives back to Scottish Rite every morning, ‘anxious that he’s been missing his mommy.’
She walked into the PICU on this particular morning to find Logan—a preemie born at only 25 weeks—in the arms of David, who smiled and introduced himself as the ICU Grandpa. This photograph captures just one precious moment with a hospital volunteer who has been touching the hearts of babies and patients for over 12 years.
