Mike Kennedy says he and his wife are terrified that a looming nurses’ strike will upend the fragile medical care keeping their premature twin daughters alive.
The Canton, Massachusetts couple has been shuttling between two Boston hospitals ever since Juliette and Kendall Kennedy were born at just 24 weeks’ gestation on Aug. 31, Mike, 30, told The Post. The girls, who each weighed less than two pounds, were immediately separated due to critical complications: Juliette needed heart surgery in the NICU at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, while Kendall was rushed to Boston Children’s Hospital for emergency treatment of severe spina bifida.
Almost six weeks later, both infants remain in stable but critical condition on breathing tubes, and their parents are still scrambling to split time between two intensive care units while also caring for a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old at home. Kelsey Kennedy, 32, a school teacher, was only able to hold each daughter for the first time this week.
“We feel guilty as it is every time we leave the hospital and can’t bring our children home with us and have them be with their siblings. But at least we had the security of knowing they are in good hands,” Mike said.
“It was obviously hard for my wife to go back and forth, for me to go back and forth, but we were comfortable with that, given the nurses we had,” he continued.
That comfort has now evaporated. Roughly 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women’s are poised to begin an indefinite strike next week unless union and hospital officials reach a contract agreement before the deadline.
“Our big concern is losing the nurses and that’s what makes it so difficult – the stress of not having [the twins] together and also not knowing what type of care that they’re going to be receiving,” said Mike, who has continued working as a residential builder through the ordeal.
The father said repeated attempts to get answers from the hospital have gone nowhere.
“We don’t have any answers. We’ve tried to reach out to the hospital. The nurses, obviously for legal reasons, can’t talk to us, so they just try to comfort us, but we don’t know who’s coming in or what their qualifications are.”
“We’re just afraid. We don’t know what we’re up against,” he added. “They require such delicate care.”
The Kennedys’ overriding hope is that Juliette and Kendall can be transferred to the same facility, a move Mike believes would aid their healing.
“From day one, we have always wanted them to be together. They were basically hugging one another for 24 weeks in the womb…and then you kind of just rip them out and they’re on their own in traumatic settings,” he said.
“Ideally, we would love to just get them in the same place so that my wife can hold them and provide milk for them at the same time.”
Amid the chaos, the family has clung to one piece of encouraging news about Kendall’s prognosis. Doctors initially warned that her severe spina bifida — the most common permanently disabling birth defect — would leave her needing lifelong assistance to walk, use the bathroom and perform everyday tasks.
“But luckily, it’s been kind of a miracle — we think that there are good signs. She’s got full movement in her toes, her brain is totally unaffected and it’s kind of scientifically unexplainable, but that’s the case right now,” Mike explained.
“We’re just hopeful that everything is going to work out the way it’s supposed to, and that they’ll both continue to heal,” he added.