WA community donates 800 teddy bears to families experiencing infant loss

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800+ teddy bears donated to grieving parents at WA hospital

When the MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington ran out of the teddy bears they give families who have lost an infant, the community showed up in droves to plug the gap.

Losing a child during birth is a pain only a small percentage understands and something no one should ever have to experience.

At the MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, they provide solace in the form of a teddy bear, but when they recently ran out of teddy bears, the community showed up in a big way.

For the hospital, these teddy bears are more than just a toy, they represent support, love and now the community. "It’s soft, it’s cuddly and like holding your baby close to you and unfortunately, these families don’t get to leave with that," Health Unit Coordinator for Labor and Delivery Stephanie Travis said.

The backstory:

On January 14, they told FOX 13, a family lost their baby during childbirth.

Nurse Raeli Korzeniecki was helping create a memory box for the family. "It usually includes handprints, footprints, anything tangible we can give them to take home," Korzeniecki said.

The box also includes a teddy bear. "We just didn’t have anymore," Korzeniecki said. So, she grabbed Travis, and together they bought a bear from the gift shop.

"A couple hours went by, and I just sat on my heart, and I was like we shouldn’t have to go get them every time this happens," Korzeniecki said.

Korzeniecki, Travis and one other nurse created an Amazon Wishlist, Korzeniecki then shared on Facebook. "From that day on, it exploded," Travis said.

Puyallup hospital receives hundreds of teddy bears for grieving parents

By the numbers:

"I was like there are like 58 shares on here, I am not that popular and by the end of my shift I had 250 bears being sent to my house," Korzeniecki said.

They now have more than 800 bears, with more still on the way. "My heart is incredibly blessed, these patients are going to be blessed," Korzeniecki said.

With each bear, there’s a message include, and some are from patients of the birth center who left without their baby. "We never forget them," Korzeniecki said. "They stay printed on your heart forever."

"The donation they gave to this family means so much more than pushing the add to cart button, they are sending their love and their prayers," Travis said.

For the families at the birth center and the nurses, this is much more than a teddy bear.

"To us, this is a reminder to the patient that we care, someone cares and now how I view it, it’s not just me, the nurse giving the teddy bear to the patient, it’s every single person who sent these bears, there’s a community of over 800 people who also care about you," Korzeniecki said.

The nursing staff is also creating a non-profit ‘Teddies for Tinies’ to go beyond the hospital walls. "We want to make sure that no nurse or staff member will ever have to walk into a closet and not be able to have a teddy bear to give to a family who are experiencing loss," Travis said.

The Source: Information for this article comes from original interviews with FOX 13's Shirah Matsuzawa.

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