About Brady’s Smile, Inc.
On March 16, 2006, Brady Blaine Hinton was born at St. Vincent’s hospital in Bridgeport, CT. He passed away two years later on March 16, 2008, his 2nd birthday. In between those dates, Brady endured a life complicated by intricate medical conditions. Through everything his little body endured, he never stopped smiling. He beamed from ear-to-ear when listening to music and experiencing the brightest of lights. He showed people that despite it all, you can maintain a positive attitude. Now, his mother and father are taking the opportunity to honor their little boy’s spirit by making a difference in the lives of those who need the most help. They are a “mom and pop” with a personal cause. A start-up company dedicated to the greater good who hope to fulfill one ultimate goal: to become the largest children’s based charitable foundation in the world.
Brady’s Smile will provide Brady’s Smile Comfort Bags, Brady Blankets and Music in the ICU (“MICU“) to very deserving people. Brady’s Smile Comfort Bags will provide basic essentials to caregivers and toys to babies and children. Brady Blankets are homemade fleece blankets that will be distributed to babies and children during their time in the ICU. The MICU program will give every baby and child an opportunity to benefit from the power of music during his or her time in the ICUs.
Please find additional information on each program below or at www.bradyssmile.org.
Brady’s Smile Comfort Bags
Having spent so much time in an ICU with Brady, we know how difficult and trying it can be on the child and care givers. There were many sleepless nights where a drink or snack meant the world to us. There were countless times a doctor stopped by with information on blood results or new medications Brady needed when we would dig up a piece of paper from our pockets and pen to frantically write everything down on. Days would pass without leaving Brady’s side to go home and take a shower because his health was too unstable. But, above all, not a second would pass when we didn’t try to make Brady as comfortable as possible in the ICU environment, by doing things like filling his crib with stuffed animals, music and constant love. When we founded Brady’s Smile, it was with all of these memories in mind and a distinct passion to help make life easier in the ICU that we created the Brady‘s Smile Comfort Bag program.
After reaching out to other parents who have also spent time in a pediatric ICU, and thinking about our own personal experience, we produced a list of examples of valuable items that we plan on including in the bags (which can be found on our website). Many of the items may seem “basic,“ but when people are living their life in the ICU, “basic” things are often forgotten and much needed. We anticipate that this list will grow as our organization expands. Due to different rules in each unit, specifically, various ages between the units and there is no food is allowed in the NBSCU, each bag will include various items listed and are slightly different between the NBSCU and PICU.
We are currently committed to providing approximately 70-100 bags a month to the patients and families at YNHCH on an ongoing basis (split between NBSCU and PICU). Although this program requires a huge amount of dedication and support, we are confident that it will help achieve our goal of making life easier in the ICU!
Brady Blankets
This wonderful program will provide homemade fleece blankets to babies and children in the NBSCU and PICU. Fleece blankets help provide a “secure” feeling to babies, especially premature babies, and are very soft and snuggly. It is our goal to provide blankets tall babies in both units as well as children who are coming out of surgery. Each blanket will be tied with a Brady’s Smile ribbon and will go home with the child upon discharge. While Brady was in the hospital, we received a blanket from an ICU nurse, which we used to bundle him up every night. He truly seemed more comfortable in this type of material and he would grab the blanket and rub it against his cheek. We are so happy to start this program with Yale and look forward to helping provide a little bit of comfort and reassurance in the lives of children who need it the most!
Music in the ICU (“MICU”)
Every time we think about Brady, two things stand out about him, things we, his parents, want him to always be remembered by – his beautiful, unforgettable smile and his love of music. Music was something that always brought a smile this face. This program is so exciting for us because it not only gives us the opportunity to provide music to the children in both ICUs, but it is one of the fondest memories we have of our Brady in the ICU. After Brady had open heart surgery at six weeks old, a therapist at Yale told us how therapeutic music was for children coming out of anesthesia and recovering from surgery. We played soothing music for Brady 24/7 for weeks. After his failed transplant operation, we again played music for him day and night during his recovery. We feel that music is a very strong therapy and a wonderful way to help children in ICUs. We strongly believe, based on our own personal experiences and discussions with other ICU parents, that music has a healing power that cannot be described using medical terms.
In the ICU environment, there are constant beeping sounds from machines, as well as doctors and nurses entering and leaving the ICU at all hours and attending to other children. As you may imagine, this can result in an unsettling environment for both patient and caregiver alike. We know from experience that soothing music can help provide a welcomed distraction from everything going on around them. Hopefully you can tell how very near and dear tour hearts this is. Even though this is the third and last program we are introducing you to (for now!), it is the one that our Brady would have loved the most.
It is Brady’s Smile goal to provide crib-side CD players and CDs (e.g. Baby Einstein and Disney lullabies) to all cribs in the NBSCU (there are more than 50 cribs in the unit), as well as to provide a combination of both crib-side CD players and regular CD players tall cribs/beds in the PICU (approximately 19 in the unit). We are hoping to complete the MICU program at Yale by December 2008! We are committed to providing approximately 10 CD players each month, however we can only do that with your support.