ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The University of Rochester Medical Center’s Mucci Family Resource Library at Golisano Children’s Hospital is adding The Silence Between Two Heartbeats to its Prematurity & NICU collection, bringing a family’s account of neonatal care into a library resource focused on patients and families.
The memoir describes the author’s daughter’s birth, diagnosis of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, early seizures and 21 days in a neonatal intensive care unit. The father’s narrative complements medical and research materials by documenting what hospital care and uncertainty felt like for a family.
The copy was delivered on September 18. The librarian had said the book would be added to the Prematurity & NICU section so families could use it during their stay, and after delivery wrote that the library was looking forward to adding it to the collection.