An “unexpected” gift: an act of solidarity, in the true Christmas spirit, for newborns in Tiber Island-Fatebenefratelli Hospital. And the surprise is even greater when the gift has come from the Holy Father.

This is what has happened at Tiber Island-Fatebenefratelli Hospital. Today, the Hospital received a brand-new GE HealthCare incubator from Pope Francis for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It was donated to the Holy Father by the well-known international corporation, Bayer, at the audience on 21 November this year, and through the Papal Almoner, Cardinal Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, Tiber Island Fatebenefratelli Hospital was chosen as the beneficiary of the gift.

It was officially delivered to the Hospital on the morning of 18 December, in the presence of Cardinal Krajewski, and Monica Poggio, CEO of Bayer Italia, and the Prior of the Hospital, Brother Angel López, and the Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Luigi Orfeo.

With blessing of the incubator, which joins the existing 16 for intensive care and 13 for sub-intensive care in the recently restructured Neonatal Care Unit, which has been upgraded to provide the best technological facilities for the patients and their families, and the greatest comfort. This is an important tribute on the part of the Holy Father to the Hospital’s round-the-clock care for newborns and their families.

Every year, the Tiber Island-Fatebenefratelli Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit treats 600 newborns, about 80% of them preterm – both extremely fragile and yet very strong at the same time, in need of highly specialised care and constant assistance, and no less in need of love.