MELROSE PARK, Ill -- Ali Sefovic was born at 2:29 p.m. on New Year’s Day, the first baby to be born in 2012 at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. The healthy baby boy weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 18¾ inches in length.
“My wife, Xhemile , arrived in America six months ago from our native country of Kosovo and doesn’t speak English,” said Ali’s father, Dulo Sefovic, who has lived in Chicago for more than 35 years. “I want to thank the nursing staff and everyone at the hospital for being so kind to us and for helping us as we welcome our son."
The Gottlieb Memorial Hospital Auxiliary gave the family a congratulatory layette set, stuffed animal and flowers.
Delivery nurses were Tatiana Crowl, RN, Ashley Bastl, RN, and Tina Scheffler, RN, assistant nursing manager. The attending physician was Dr. Scott Pierce and resident physician was Dr. Gretchen Garbe.
Crowl, who is from Russia, formed a special bond with the new mother. “She speaks Albanian and I speak Russian, but our native countries are neighbors,” Crowl explained. “I am so proud of her and was honored to help with the birth of her first child, who is also the first grandson in the family.”
50 Years of New Life
Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, part of Loyola University Health System, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011. Since 1961, delivery nurses have recorded births by hand in special clothbound ledgers.
“Through the years, we have had many special requests to see the log of their birth by adults who were born at Gottlieb,” said Scheffler, who has worked in the birth center for more than 20 years. “We even have several physicians and medical staff members working at Gottlieb who were born here, and whose names are recorded in the birth books, which is really touching."
While the community hospital is proud of its progressive focus on patient-centered care, the handwritten log is a nod to the past. The Gottlieb birth center and family-centered care unit offers private patient rooms with a guest chair that converts to a bed so a close family member or friend can stay overnight. Gottlieb patients order meals from restaurant-style menus, much like hotel room service. And housekeeping by request allows patients to specify what time they would like their room cleaned.
Because of the affiliation with Loyola, specialists including neonatalogists and pediatric cardiologists are available to care for Gottlieb’s youngest patients.
For media inquiries, please contact Stasia Thompson at thoms@lumc.edu or call (708) 216-5155 or (708) 417-5036.