More than 150 families whose children once fought for survival in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital came back together on Sunday, bringing bounce houses, game booths and a carnival spirit to a reunion the hospital had never held before. Families reconnected with the nurses and staff who had played a role in their critical care journey, some marking the occasion in T-shirts reading “NICU Family Reunion.”
The gathering, held Nov. 8, 2026, was described by Redlands Daily Facts as the hospital's first reunion of people treated in its NICU. Many nurses volunteered their time for the event, which had a carnival theme complete with inflatable bounce houses, game booths and photo opportunities with popular Disney film characters.
A Celebration Years in the Making
For the families who returned, the reunion offered a chance to put faces and names back together after some of the most frightening days of their lives, reconnecting with the nurses and staff who guided them through their children's time in intensive care. The event drew enough interest that the hospital is already looking ahead. According to Loma Linda University Health News, the children's hospital hopes to make the NICU reunion an annual celebration going forward.
How Loma Linda's Debut Compares to a Longtime SoCal Tradition
Loma Linda's inaugural gathering joins a tradition that has deeper roots elsewhere in Southern California. UCLA Health's NICU reunion has been held biennially for more than 40 years, according to UCLA Health, making it one of the region's longest-running events of its kind. One recent UCLA gathering, billed as its 32nd NICU reunion, drew nearly 600 former patients, family members and health care staff, per UCLA Health, with activities including a petting zoo, pony rides and a bounce house.
Another UCLA reunion, described as the health system's first in-person gathering since the COVID-19 pandemic, brought back 450 former patients ranging in age from 3 months to 31 years old, UCLA Health reported separately. That decades-long track record offers a glimpse of what Loma Linda's new tradition could grow into if the hospital follows through on its hope to hold the event every year.
What the Day Meant Close to Home
For now, the focus remains on the families who showed up for Loma Linda's first attempt at the milestone. Many nurses who once worked overnight shifts in the NICU came back on their own time to see the children they helped care for, swapping scrubs for a carnival day on the hospital lawn.
