By Mark Hofmann

Published: Saturday, February 5, 2011

Little did I know when I was on a routine assignment at Uniontown Hospital that I would be faced with a possible sign of how tomorrow's Super Bowl may turn out.

When the big game comes around, so do the number of Pittsburgh Steelers-related stories that a newspaper reporter like myself is assigned to write.

This year, my big Super Bowl story was finding how people are celebrating at their places of employment. A trip to Uniontown Hospital was on my list.

Earlier this week while I was speaking on the phone with Karen DeiCas, director of development and community relations at Uniontown Hospital, she said it would be no problem to find wards in the hospital that are going all out to support the "drive to 45," or XLV, if you want to make the number official.

She also added that I may get lucky and find a newborn wearing a specially made Steelers blanket and hat made by nurse Karen Lessman of Mt. Pleasant.

I thought that would make a good photo. But how lucky can you really get• Unless there's a scheduled C-section, expecting to have a newborn to photograph on a particular day and time is like predicting the results of a coin toss.

But yesterday, DeiCas and I headed to the unofficially named "Hines Maternity Ward" where there were babies born on Feb. 1, 3 and 4.

It wasn't until I started having the chairman of the department of obstetrics, Dr. Daniel Nahhas, and two registered nurses, Robin Nehela and Jill Milkluscak, help me set up a photo shot of the six babies in the nursery dressed in Black and Gold that I got even luckier.

Pittsburgh has six Super Bowl rings, four fingers and two thumbs accounted for. But, like all Steelers fans, I was hoping for seven.

But, I told myself, six was enough.

"Why push your luck?" I thought.

I took the photos and the babies were cute. I thought my job was done, but then I heard what I thought was a cell phone's ring tone with the familiar melody "Happy Birthday To You."

I was then informed that it wasn't a cell phone; it was the intercom. The song plays whenever a child is born, and that child was Sa-Rhya Jointer, the daughter of Shayla Jointer and Duane Harrison of Cardale.

The seventh in the last several days.

So, what do you think — how lucky can you get?

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