Norton Children’s Hospital delivers thousands of Valentine’s Day cards, gifts to patients

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Hundreds of kids within Norton Children’s Hospital felt the love this Valentine’s Day as thousands of cards and stuffed animals were delivered to brighten their day.

The hospital said a total of 10,600 Valentine cards and 1,705 stuffed animals were handed out to children at Norton Children’s Hospital, Norton Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Norton Children’s Medical Center and Novak Center for Children’s Health.

Over the past few weeks, the hospital has been collecting online cards and donations from the community through its website. Donations came in from across Kentucky, as well as 46 other states and Canada.

Norton Children’s Hospital staff said the gifts help bring some normalcy to children and families’ lives during a rough time.

“Holidays are sometimes hard for parents and families because they’re not in their normal routine,” Dr. Melissa Porter, a pediatric ICU physician with Norton Children’s Hospital said. “We do try to make it special for the kids so that they don’t feel like they’re missing out on things that they would be doing at home.”

Sara Ramazani said her son has been within Norton Children’s Hospital since November of last year.

She said she’s grateful for the care her son has received and appreciates the kindness of both hospital staff and the community who helped donate the gifts.

“It’s worth a million bucks,” Ramazani said. “It’s been very emotional up here, so just to kind of see him get back to himself is great.”

Stuffed animals were purchased through Sendafriend, with 10% from those purchases being donated to the Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation to support patients at Norton Children’s Heart Institute as part of American Heart Month.

Norton Children’s Hospital said this year’s donations surpassed last year’s totals of nearly 8,000 Valentine’s cards and 1,500 stuffed animals.