Each year, more than 850 babies born prematurely or with serious health conditions are treated at MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital’s donor-powered Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) — a place Sarah and Kyle Butts know all too well. It’s the spot where all three of their children started their lives.
Their NICU journey began in 2018 when Sarah was pregnant with twins. Just 26 weeks in, she woke up and knew something was wrong. Sarah and Kyle went straight to Tacoma General Hospital for help.
In the hours that followed, Sarah was taken in for a classical Cesarean section, and twins Brooklynn and Emerson were born the following day — three months shy of their due date.
“They were taken into the NICU, and then they did two hours of surgery, recovery and compressions on my uterus,” Sarah recalls. “They wheeled me down to see my babies at one in the morning, and our journey began.”
As the only Level IV NICU in Southwest Washington, Tacoma General Hospital’s unit provides the highest level of care to babies born prematurely like Brooklynn and Emerson. Thanks to community generosity, babies across the state can access the support they need to grow.
For the Butts family, one of the most impactful parts of their stay was their personalized care team, including neonatologists Cherrie Tan-Dy, MD, and Michael Kuluz, MD.
“I was really empowered to find the people that worked well with me, my family and my emotional overload I was going through,” Sarah says. “By the end, they had taught me and empowered me so much.”
After 89 days in the NICU, the twins went home together on February 13, 2019, as NICU staff lined the hallways to send them off.
Twins Emerson and Brooklynn
Fast forward two years, and the family returned to the Tacoma General NICU last December when their third child, Easton, was born at 35 weeks gestation. He spent four days in the NICU, bonding with the same team that cared for his older siblings.
“They were not only there for my babies, but they were also there for me,” Sarah shares. “There are so many resources they plug you into and make sure that, as a new mom with potentially medically-fragile children, you have everything right there with you — therapies when we discharged, how we were going to get oxygen in our home. Even just listening and hearing my frustrations — why I was sad, why I was upset, any concerns I had.”
Today, the three NICU graduates are thriving, thanks to staff committed to helping them grow. They’ve each blossomed into their own characters: Brooklynn is spunky, Emerson is an old soul and Easton has the sweetest personality.
“If it weren’t for having the NICU close to us, I don’t know what would’ve happened to my kids,” Sarah says. “Being in the same hospital then was so crucial for my story because I was able to be there within hours, and I was able to go see my kids and still get my care because I was close enough to home.”
Sarah holds baby Easton
