Doctor and Santa turn out to be one and the same at Barrington hospital
With an underweight baby in intensive care, Melinda Hovland was anxious to talk to the neonatologist. He was supposed to be making rounds shortly in the special care nursery at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, but Santa Claus was expected soon, too.
And then Hovland discovered the two men she was waiting for were one and the same - the red-suited St. Nick who came for photos with the babies and Dr. Tom Sheagren, the very physician who was caring for her tiny new daughter, Emma.
"He walked in, and it was so touching - the fact of knowing all the skills and education and what this man is capable of doing - that he was dressing up as Santa," said Hovland, of Palatine. "I thought it was incredibly touching."
Nearly every Christmas for the past 31 years, Sheagren, of Glenview, has traded his scrubs for a Santa suit to pose for the camera in the nurseries of the Advocate Health Care system. The pictures are gifts to the patient's families.
"It's always really hard having a baby in the hospital," Sheagren said, "and at Christmas it's just that much harder."
Weighing less than six pounds, Emma Hovland was born at Barrington's Good Shepherd prematurely on Dec. 13. The visit from Dr. Santa was a morale boost for her parents, Mark and Melinda.
"It definitely brought some Christmas spirit to us," Melinda said. "Even though (Emma) is far enough along that I know in my heart she's going to be okay, it's still scary. She's got a monitor hooked up to her, she's got an IV.
"We don't even know if she's going to be home for Christmas," Hovland said last week.
Besides taking a photo with Emma in his arms, Sheagren addressed her mother's concerns for Emma's progress. He even apologized to Hovland. "I feel totally unprofessional talking to you dressed like this," Sheagren told her.
Families may consider the doctor's Santa shift a gift to them, but he said it's been deeply gratifying for him, too. "I can't tell you how many families have told me over the years that picture was so special to them," he said.
Karen Lutz, clinical nurse manager for Good Shepherd's neonatal intensive care unit, agreed.
"For parents whose children are in the special care nursery, it allows them to step out of the special care parent role and be just a parent," Lutz said.
"They can participate in the holidays the same way everyone else does for those few moments."
Sheagren has been doing the St. Nick shtick since he was a second year pediatrics resident, but it was never his idea to deck his Santa-shaped frame in candy cane colors. In December 1977, a parent support group at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, asked Sheagren to represent the North Pole for nursery photos.
"Profiling," he said good-naturedly. "If you had a lineup, you'd say, 'Well, that's the guy we're going to ask to be Santa.'"
In the early days, he wore a cheap red felt top, cottony beard and traditional Santa hat for photos from the waist up. In the mid-1980s, a grateful mom decided Dr. Santa needed proper attire and called his wife for measurements. Sheagren still uses the suit the woman made him, and he bought an expensive wig to go with it.
It's a get-up that convinces Santa-savvy kids, and that's what really counts. Sheagren likes to tell the story of an awestruck 5- or 6-year-old who, with his dad, had the good fortune to walk out of his mother's room on Lutheran's postpartum floor just as Santa was passing by.
"I said, 'Hello! Have you been a good boy?'" Sheagren recalls.
"Yes, Santa," the boy replied.
"Did you just have a baby brother or sister?"
"A baby sister."
Sheagren then asked the earnest youngster, "Are you going to help your mom and dad with your baby sister when she comes home?"
"His face just screwed up, and he started shaking. He said, 'I will, Santa! I will!' We all just laughed. I'll never forget that."
The good doctor also got a kick out of being asked to participate in a four-generation photo last Christmas at Good Shepherd. As Santa, he posed with baby, father, grandfather and great-grandmother.
"I felt so honored to be part of that picture," Sheagren said.
He especially enjoys multiples in the nursery.
"I've juggled twins and triplets and even one set of quadruplets in my arms," Sheagren said. "I haven't dropped a baby yet."
His own daughters have often been part of the act, first serving as elves when they were in Girl Scouts. Kimberly, now a 27-year-old social worker in Chicago, still puts on a Santa hat every year to help with photography. Her sister Elizabeth, 25, pitches in when she's home for Christmas from Tampa, Fla.
Sometimes Sheagren does the full Santa gig for the families of hospital staff - reading "The Night Before Christmas," singing "Jingle Bells" with the kids and, of course, listening to children's Christmas wish lists.
This year, Dr. Santa has been able to fulfill the holiday wish of one family, at least. Emma Hovland was scheduled to arrive home from the hospital in time for Christmas Eve.