Joelle Haley went into labor on Christmas Day, giving birth to a son two days later — premature at 24 weeks. In the soothing darkness of a Detroit hospital room a little something was missing for the newborn Kieran and his mom. Turns out that something was a colorful batch of soft yarn Haley would crochet into a small, tentacled octopus.
For preemies in the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at DMC Hutzel Women’s Hospital, dozens of the cuddly, donated octopi get their attention and help keep small hands from grabbing and tugging on tubes and wires that help keep them alive.
