Dave Whitlow leaves his phone at the door before going inside.
He is 73 years old, spent more than four decades working in local government management, and is now the grandfather of three grandchildren. But twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he puts on a gown and gloves and enters the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Richmond in Virginia. There, the hospital’s smallest patients await him: babies who sometimes weigh less than one kilogram and struggle to breathe.
On each visit, he holds between five and eight babies. He first consults with the nurses, checks the monitors, and adjusts the way he holds them to help improve their oxygen levels. He has no medical degree to back him up, only eight years of experience and a purpose he sums up as the best job he has ever had.
Before returning each baby to their crib, Dave always whispers the same wish to them. No one outside that room knows exactly what he tells them, but the nurses say it works.