Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, September 19, 2008 at 11:54 p.m.
The butterfly necklace Danielle McInerney wears is for her twin son and daughter, Finn and Quinley, who died shortly after they were born.
Four years after their deaths, the two live on, not just in their mother’s jewelry, but in their parents’ loving act of remembrance.
This week, Danielle McInerney and her husband, Mike, dedicated mother-and-child rooms at DCH Regional Medical Center and Northport Medical Center in memory of the twins they lost in 2004.
The McInerneys cut the ribbon to the Finn and Quinley Mother and Child Room in the Women’s Pavilion at Northport Medical Center on Friday. It will serve as a private room for mothers to nurse their newborns and will be equipped with rocking chairs, breast-feeding supplies and music so the mothers can bond with their children in a nursery setting, rather than a hospital room.
“It’s our goal to make them feel as comfortable as possible,” said Danielle McInerney.
More than 1,500 babies are born each year in the two hospitals. But no lactation rooms existed at either one, so the arrival of a quiet place for mothers to nurse their babies is something new for both.
Finn and Quinley McInerney were born premature, at just 24 weeks old at Northport Medical Center, and died eight days after they were born.
The McInerneys established the Finn and Quinley Foundation, which has raised money and supplies for the DCH and Northport neonatal and pediatric units. Since its establishment, the foundation has raised more than $120,000 for the hospitals, beginning at the twins’ funeral when the McInerneys requested that donations to the fund be made in lieu of flowers.
The donations collected at the funeral reached $14,000.
“We were just shocked at how unbelievable the Tuscaloosa community was,” said Danielle McInerney. “People were literally coming out of the woodwork to help us and to tell us they were praying for us.”
Since then, the foundation has held three “Reel of Dreams” fundraisers at the Jemison House. The McInerneys have also donated flat-screen TVs and mini-refrigerators to the pediatric unit at DCH.
The McInerneys have also set up a fund to house mothers who have to stay overnight with their babies. Because of the foundation, Northport Medical Center was able to send 48 nurses around the country to train in neonatal care.
The hospitals also have additional goals, including the purchase of warming lights for the neonatal intensive care unit to cure newborn jaundice. The warming lights break down the jaundice, which is prevalent in newborn babies in the Tuscaloosa area, said Carolyn Henley, director of women’s services at Northport Medical Center.
Other goals include raising $100,000 for the year and the donation of more supplies for the hospitals’ wish lists.
“We want to give them things to be more comfortable, and things that they can’t get on a supply list,” said Danielle McInerney.
“I was here when Finn and Quinley were born and they’ve changed this place so much,” Henley said. “I have a whole new outlook on how mothers handle tough decisions with their childrens’ health.”