‘ICU grandpa’ melts hearts after photo with preemie goes viral

A grandpa’s selfless act at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) has gone viral this week after the hospital posted a photo of him holding a premature baby.

According to a Facebook post from CHOA posted Sept. 27, David Deutchman visits the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) every Tuesday to hold and comfort babies while their parents can’t be there. Then on Thursdays, he pays a visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Deutchman has been dubbed the “ICU Grandpa” by parents and hospital staff members who have seen him do this for the past 12 years, according to the post.

The viral post tells the story of Deutchman and baby Logan, a baby boy born at 25 weeks who has been in the hospital for almost two months.

Logan’s mother, MaryBeth Brulette, goes home each night to be with his “big sister” but she’s anxious her son misses her at night.

One morning, Brulette walked into the PICU and found Deutchman holding baby Logan. Deutchman introduced himself as the ICU Grandpa and Brulette’s “anxiety and everything was gone,” she told 11 Alive.

By Friday morning, the post had been shared over 40,000 times and received over 130,000 likes and reactions. Thousands of users left comments about how sweet Deutchman’s actions are and others shared their own experiences of having children in the NICU and PICU.

"Some of my guy friends, they ask me what I do here. And I say, 'well, I hold babies. I get puked on, I get peed on,' and they say why would you do that?! Some people just don't understand the kind of reward you would get from holding a baby like this," Deutchman told 11 Alive.

Deutchman began volunteering after retiring from international business marketing. He has two grown daughters in their 50s and two grandchildren, ages 19 and 21, Public Relations Coordinator Amanda Wade said.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 1:23 PM with the headline "‘ICU grandpa’ melts hearts after photo with preemie goes viral."