Children from My Bright Beginnings-Graduate Hospital returned to thank their helpers from Penn Medicine Rittenhouse.
The security team at Penn Medicine Rittenhouse is always prepared for anything, but even they had to pause one morning when about 50 infants, preschoolers, and their childcare teachers showed up in the lobby.
My Bright Beginnings, a childcare facility down the street, had received a bomb threat and Penn Medicine Rittenhouse was their go-to evacuation spot. Sparing no time to pick up strollers or jackets, the director, owner, and other teachers grabbed an infant in each arm and marched the older children up the street.
The teachers entertained the children with songs and games in the lobby while Assistant Executive Hospital Director Joseph Cooney found them a better place to wait for the all-clear – a surgical waiting room in the Tuttleman Center at Pennsylvania Hospital’s outpatient surgery center across the street. Several nurse managers, clinical directors, and security staff jumped in to help get everyone safely across the bridge to the Tuttleman Center.
“At that point, the teachers and all of us were pretty exhausted, because we’re each carrying one to two infants plus the young toddlers that are just learning to walk,” said Yelena Spector, owner of My Bright Beginnings–Graduate Hospital. “The Penn staff helped our teachers take the infants and the older children’s hands and made multiple trips to help us. It was just so amazing.”
The group was cleared to return to their building soon after that, and returned the following week with thank-you cards for the hospital staff who helped them.
“The staff always rally together, whatever the emergency,” Cooney said. “This was a unique challenge and they met it head on and did a fabulous job.”