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Melladee Joelle Thurman, 8, shows off her face paint at the NICU Reunion.

Annual NICU Reunion Draws Former Patients, Families from Across Arkansas

May 11, 2026 | Gently blowing bubbles flanked the entrances to the Civitan Pavilion at the Little Rock Zoo as former neonatal preemies and their families attended a May 2 reunion with their providers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Buoyed by perfect spring weather, the annual UAMS NICU Reunion brought together former premature infants who are now toddlers, adults or somewhere in-between, to celebrate the lifesaving care they received months or years earlier. Most were accompanied by their parents, and some by their siblings and grandparents as well.

For the doctors, nurses and other staff members who kept the tiny babies alive during those precarious days, the reunion provided an opportunity to reconnect with the families at a less stressful time and see how they’ve grown.

“To be able to see them graduate from kindergarten, hear about their soccer games or playing T-ball, and see how well they’re learning to read and how they’re doing in school really helps our staff know that all the hard work they put in to the unit makes a difference for families,” said Sara Peeples, M.D., medical director of the UAMS NICU.

The UAMS NICU is the largest private-room NICU in the state, serving families from across Arkansas. There are close to 3,500 deliveries at UAMS each year, and about a third of those infants require admission to the NICU.  The unit specializes in helping families deal with high-risk pregnancies, premature births and various medical needs. Bonds are naturally created as staff work closely with families during scary and stressful times.

Isabel Wood, 14, played electric guitar with a live band at the event. She said she was born at UAMS at just 23 weeks’ gestation — a critical period when many fetuses cannot survive outside the uterus, even with intensive medical care.

Accompanied by her father, Brett Wood, and her grandparents, Isabel said she was thrilled to perform her “second gig” ever with other NICU graduates.

“It’s very special that we can all come together and express our differences, but also what we’ve gone through together,” she said. “That’s what makes us kind of one.”

She said she has some ongoing lung problems stemming from her premature birth, and at one point had a condition called idiopathic toe walking that required her legs to be in casts, but otherwise, she feels fine. She said she is grateful to the UAMS team that cared for her, and her father agreed.

Brett Wood said he was also representing his wife, Erin Wood, who was unable to attend because she was in Italy. Describing how difficult the pregnancy was that brought Isabel into their lives, he said she had a twin brother who was born at 21 weeks and held on to life for two weeks in the NICU.

Abby and Kyle Burton drove in from the Pope County town of London to attend the event in honor of their 3-year-old daughter, Wrenlee, who spent four months in the NICU in 2023 after being delivered at just 28 weeks gestation — about 12 weeks early.

The Burtons, who also have a son, Rhett, who will turn 1 year old this month, said they’ll never forget the night of Jan. 30, 2023, when Wrenlee was born much earlier than her expected due date of April 26.

“I woke up with a bad headache in the middle of the night, crying,” Abby Burton said. “I started having seizures.”

Kyle Burton said he called paramedics who took his wife to the hospital in Conway, which transferred her to UAMS. Abby Burton was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder, and her daughter was delivered that night.

The Burtons said they are grateful to the UAMS team that saved Wrenlee’s life, and plan to come to the NICU reunion every year.

A more recent NICU graduate, Malachi, accompanied his parents to the reunion from their home in Paragould to celebrate his June 2025 birth at just 26 weeks and one day gestation. He sat on a table in a red onesie printed with colorful zoo animals while wearing an elephant ear headband and seeming to enjoy the party atmosphere.

His parents, Elizabeth and Dustin Barker, said a placental abruption led to their son’s early delivery at UAMS, after his mother was transferred from a hospital in Jonesboro when doctors saw that she was in preterm labor. Malachi ended up staying two months in the NICU.

“We still have a lot of sickness to overcome,” his mother said. “He has a floppy airway and will have surgery in June.”

The couple, who also has a 7-year-old son, Ezra, who was born at 35 weeks and didn’t need the assistance of the NICU, said they are eternally grateful for the treatment that Malachi received at UAMS.

The three-hour reunion included a popular face-painting station where UAMS employees artfully hand-painted designs from about a dozen available templates onto small faces. There was also a photography station just inside the entry to the pavilion where Sidebottom Photography of Heber Springs took professional photos of NICU graduates and their families that would later be available for a free download.

In addition to giving out headbands representing various zoo animals, UAMS volunteers distributed information on car seat safety and the UAMS Milk Bank and served pizza and cupcakes.

Ashley Boyce, the NICU’s clinical service manager, proclaimed the Sunday afternoon event a success.

“Getting to see these babies come home and then come back to visit us, thriving, is the best part,” she said.

This marked the fourth year that the event was held at the zoo. Boyce estimated that about 500 guests attended.

For more information about the NICU, visit uamshealth.com/nicu.