Staples family fulfills goal
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 8 years, 4 months AGO
Photo courtesy of Kootenai Health Pictured from left: Kootenai Health Family Birth Center staff Elizabeth Jarman, Brianna Lee, Sara Drechsel, Kristie Hiiva, Whitney Phillips, Meghan Smith; Sara Staples, husband Cory (holding son Weston) and daughters Helena, Maddie and Katherine; and Kootenai Health Foundation manager Britt Towery.
COEUR d’ALENE — Sara Staples and her family achieved their goal and presented Kootenai Health with a Cuddle Cot on Thursday.
The Cuddle Cot, a crib-sized cooling preservation device, will be used as a tool to help families through the grieving process after losing an infant. Staples helped raise $2,864 to purchase the Cuddle Cot after losing her daughter, Charlotte, four years ago.
Staples shared her story in a June 17 Press article. She said she is grateful for the generous donations she received to fulfill that goal.
“Time is precious and in the stillness of death even more so," she said. "Please know that through your generous hearts you are helping create more time for families, like mine and others, to say goodbye on their time, when they are ready. You are giving them the opportunity to love and cherish their baby for as long as they need. My family can't thank you enough!”
The staff of Kootenai’s Family Birth Center is also grateful, noting the importance of having every tool possible to help families cope with loss.
“We are so thankful to have the Cuddle Cot,” registered nurse Whitney Phillips said. "This will allow our grieving families who have experienced a loss to keep their precious babies with them for as long as they choose. It allows them the extra time they need to grieve, make memories and to say goodbye. In a situation that is very much out of their control, they get to decide when they are ready to say goodbye.”