“The Buffalo Bills welcomed William “Will” Lucas from Stone’s Buddies at John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital to the field for a special moment during practice on Friday, Aug. 2. Earlier in the day, Lucas signed a one-day contract with Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott to serve as the honorary captain!”

“Every year, Tops Friendly Markets host a golf tournament to raise awareness and money for the children treated at Oishei Children’s Hospital.

As a preview to the gold tournament, they host a “celebrity” putting tournament where local TV, Radio, and sports celebrities team up with kids being treated at Oishei for a fun time.

This year, Tops was able to present Oishei with a check for $500,000…a record amount!”

“Dr. Munmun Rawat is an assistant professor at UB’s Jacobs school of Medicine and neonatologist at Buffalo’s Oishei Children’s Hospital. More than two years ago Dr. Rawat gave birth to her son, who was just over two pounds, but she couldn’t hold him right away.

“So first three days of life – I couldn’t even hold my own baby because of the fear of brain bleed,” remarked Dr. Rawat.

That’s when she came up with a concept to create an incubator mattress. Researchers collect sounds of a mom’s heartbreak, breathing and voice from a ‘necklace’ of sensors worn by the mother. The data is inserted into the mattress – serving as the mom’s chest.

“And then we would be able to send the heartbeat of the mom there as well as we would be creating the temperature and send the mom’s voice – the soothing voice – mom talking to the baby right in the incubator,” explained Dr. Rawat.

A preemie recently born at Children’s is already large enough for kangaroo care. Parents can use a special pouch. It’s a small piece of material, designed like a ‘tube top’ called ‘Kanga Wear’ and it’s helping preemie babies at Children’s.

Holding a preemie is the best benefit, but until that can happen, Dr. Rawat hopes once her mattress is developed and perfected, it could provide the next best thing.”

“BUFFALO, N.Y. — Physicians, nurses, and staff at Oishei Children’s Hospital had a little fun at work recently, dancing in front of the camera.

The reason? According to a Facebook post, it was ‘in celebration of our The Leapfrog Group Top Children’s Hospital distinction!’”

“The Buffalo Bills’ quarterback was part of a design team that met Monday inside a conference room on the seventh floor of Oishei Children’s Hospital. The group’s task was to develop a New Era Cap that will be sold this fall as a fundraiser for the hospital. “

“Kiss 98.5 (radio station) and WBEN are both broadcasting live from the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Thursday as they work to bring in $173,000 in donations from the community.”

“‘I was so familiar with the benefits of kangaroo care that I wanted all babies to have the benefit,’ she said. ‘So it triggered the thought, ‘if we can’t bring baby to the mother, why not bring mother to the baby?’

Working with students and faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint department between UB’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Jacobs School, Rawat began developing a concept to replicate kangaroo care for babies who are too fragile to be held.

She decided to develop an incubator mattress that mimics the rhythm of mom and dad’s breathing, and even their voices.

The team created a necklace made of sensors for the parents, which gathers data about their breathing patterns. Those data are programmed into the mattress, which then inflates and deflates in accordance with those breathing data. Another mechanical pump in the mattress replicates the vibration of the parent’s heartbeat. A small, fabric doll that the mother can sleep with gathers her personal odors, which help to familiarize the infant with parents, even without direct bodily contact.”