When Dana and Adam Puharic lost their newborn son Michael within 83 hours of his birth 10 years ago, the couple channeled their grief into positive energy for families and infants in need across Monmouth County.

The Puharic family launched Michael’s Feat, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing comfort and support for families carrying and caring for seriously ill newborns.

“When you are married and having your first child, no one expects tragedy,” said Dana Puharic, Michael’s mother and founder of Michael’s Feat.

Michael was born with a chromosome disorder known as trisomy 13. He was born July 29, 2000, and died on Aug. 1.

“There are so many times where I wanted to crumble … but Adam and I were chosen for a reason. Although Michael’s life was only 83 hours on this Earth, he really has impacted the entire community,” she said.

Shortly after Michael was born at Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, nurses at the hospital pooled their own money to purchase a changing table, a basic crib and a car seat for the Puharics.

The couple had not purchased these items because they were aware of complications that made the pregnancy high risk.

It was then that the idea for the Michael Gerard Puharic Memorial Fund Inc., known as Michael’s Feat, was born.

“We were able to bring Michael home for his last two days,” Adam Puharic said.

His wife was moved by the actions of the hospital staff, “wonderful people, who had been strangers,” Adam noted, who pooled their resources out of generosity and caring.

“We wanted to return the favor for other people,” Adam said.

The Puharics, who lived in Aberdeen Township at that time, also received an outpouring of support from the Bayshore community. A funeral Mass for Michael was offered at St. Clement Church of Matawan, officiated by the Rev. John Scully. The parish became the building block of the charity’s success, Puharic said.

“When [the parishioners] heard about the pregnancy, they started praying every Sunday at Mass for Dana,” he said. “The Mass [of Christian Burial] at St. Clement was overflowing out to the parking lot. [Father Scully] was a very good friend to us during that time. He did a lot of counseling with us. St. Clement’s embraced us as a young family and at the same time really gave us the energy to get [Michael’s Feat] off the ground.”

The St. Clement community raised approximately $9,000 in Michael’s memory.

“It was huge, considering we were sitting there at the funeral of our son,” he said. “We used that money to buy the very first car seats within a month of the charity’s forma- tion. We were buying car seats [for] Monmouth Medical Center and changing tables and cribs and all sorts of things that families could bring home.”

The couple worked together to raise awareness and provide support for families going through similar situations with seriously ill or premature newborns, providing direct financial support, overnight bags filled with supplies for families staying in the hospital, furniture and medical equipment, counseling, meals and gas cards.

The nonprofit works with health care professionals, nurse managers, social workers and liaisons at Monmouth Medical Center and at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune.

The charity also has a liaison role with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to assist families in need.

“When the nurse managers or the social workers call us and say there is a family that just came in, Dana, through our bylaws, can grant up to $1,000 of whatever it is they need on the spot,” Puharic said. “If there are [expenses] over that, we have a quick board email and we talk about what the family might need. We’ve contributed $10,000 toward a child’s heart operation where there was some issue about a deductible.”

Over the last 10 years, Michael’s Feat has assisted more than 300 families not only with donations, but also with caring and support.

“In that way, our charity, I think, has saved a lot of babies’ lives,” he said. “The mothers are comforted knowing they are being supported and there are people there who have been through this before.”

For many of these families, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at local hospitals becomes their home until their babies are healthy.

In 2007, Michael’s Feat launched its Family Resource Room at Monmouth Medical Center, where family members can relax in a living room-style environment with books, a television, and couches designed to make families and visitors more comfortable when visiting the hospital.

“When you have an ill baby, your whole life revolves around spending every moment with that child,” Dana said. “When you are sitting in a waiting room, and we’ve all done it, it’s not the prettiest room, it’s not the most comfortable. That’s what we wanted to provide, because that [room] is your home away from home.”

For premature infants, the nonprofit purchased Giraffe OmniBed units for both hospitals, which are incubators that mimic a mother’s womb.

“When you are a very premature baby, when you weigh a pound, if you even get lifted, like from one bed to another, that could seriously damage your spinal cord, and there’s a lot of bad things that could happen,” Adam said. “[The OmniBed] heats the baby and weighs the baby constantly, and it does it all in one big plastic container, so the baby doesn’t have to be moved.”

The charity has also raised money for leather reclining chairs for a treatment called “kangaroo care,” a method of holding a diaper-clad baby in skin-to-skin contact on the chest of the parent. Studies have shown that small premature babies benefit from the skin-to-skin contact, especially when nursing. The close contact helps the babies grow and heal at a faster rate than if they were in an isolette, Adam said.

The process helps increase an infant’s skin and core temperatures from the heat of the parent and improves the baby’s breathing, he explained.

“By having these specialized, comfortable, big hospital-grade leather chairs, the moms get to sit and they nurse the babies and can spend hours in this chair, and it really boosts the recovery time,” he said. “They will grow faster; they will thrive and will get stronger quicker.”

To date, Michael’s Feat has raised $1 million — and is still growing. The nonprofit is hoping to expand its community services to the western side of the county to CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, aiming to become “the premier organization for seriously ill newborns in Monmouth County.”

Michael’s Feat is hosting its annual gala on April 1 at Battleground Country Club, Manalapan. The event is black tie optional and $125 per ticket.

This year’s fundraising goal is $100,000 for various projects at both hospitals.

“It [the nonprofit] gave me a purpose again,” Dana said. “I was Michael’s mother, and I am going to do this in his name. It pushedme forward to say, ‘I am going to put my energy into this.’ You hear the clichés, but here it is 10 years later — we channeled that [sadness] into something positive.”

Looking back on her 10 years with Michael’s Feat, Puharic thanked executive committee board member Amy Krok, the vice chairwoman, for guiding the family along with performing the marketing and financial aspects of the nonprofit, as well as all the board members who have volunteered and offered time to help a child in need.

“People were surrounding me with support, and … I felt that energy,” Dana said. “It’s incredible when I look back now and I see 10 years and I see the babies we were fortunate enough to help.”

To this day, Michael’s spirit and inspiring strength live on.

“Women and men handle grief differently, but when you are faced with this news, we have a tremendous faith, and that was the one thing we shared,” Dana said. “[Adam] said, ‘Dana, we are stronger than this; we are going to move on and there is a bigger plan in store for Michael.’”

The Puharics now have three healthy children.

Formore information, visit the website at www.michaelsfeat.org/.