DAYTON — Brandon Creekbaum, who was born nearly four months premature at Miami Valley Hospital 35 years ago, has returned to the same neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as a father. His twin daughters, Iris and Lyla, are currently receiving care in the unit after being born two months premature.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
The reunion brings Creekbaum back to the facility where he was once a patient, reuniting him with some of the same medical professionals who cared for him in 1991.
For Creekbaum, the moment is surreal. The same faces he first set eyes on as he clung to life, now caring for his twin daughters. They are also getting comfort and support from nurses who once cared for him.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Dayton Public Schools to reconfigure schools for next school year
- 16-year-old student arrested after gun found in Ohio school building
- 1 dead after shooting in Springfield neighborhood
“When you walk in, you have a nurse that took care of you holding your child. It makes you think, like, man, that was me,” he told News Center 7.
For the nurses who did everything they could to care for Creekbaum decades ago, there’s a sense of pride and validation. His daughters, named after flowers, are ready to blossom from tiny beings into powerful little girls, and those nurses are providing all three the attention and compassion they need to grow.
“When people say, ‘Why did you work in the NICU,’ they hear Brandon’s story. He is the reason I stayed 32 years,” Marcia Brawner, Creekbaum’s primary nurse in 1991, said.
Kim Morgan, a nurse practitioner at the NICU, was overwhelmed by the full-circle moment.
“We took care of him 35 years ago, and now he’s walking and talking, and has a family, and we had a part in that,” Morgan said. “Sorry, it’s just overwhelming. That’s something that our team did way back then, and now, here he is today.”
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2026 Cox Media Group
