'Bigger Mac' nurtures recovering children who need a home away from home
New Ronald McDonald House addresses growing demand for outpatient lodging
Jill Hagen and her daughter, Lexine, 16, who is recovering from a double lung transplant, are staying in the new isolation quarters at Ronald McDonald House.
BY KATHARINE MILLER
Immediately after the newly expanded Ronald McDonald House at Stanford opened last December, 3-year-old Cecilio Jaramillo moved in. He stayed five months while recovering from kidney transplant surgery. Now he thinks it’s home.
“I told him we’re going to visit our home in California,” said his grandmother, Martina Angel during a recent trip from Las Vegas, N.M., where she lives with Cecilio. “When we arrived, he ran straight to the door and walked in hugging everybody.”
Touring the new building on Sand Hill Road across from Stanford Shopping Center, it’s easy to see why Cecilio loves the place. Clowns balance on high wires in the brightly colored entryway. Star- and bird-shaped windows, a circular aquarium and a built-in castle make the facility seem like a fun-filled vacationland. But it’s much more than that.
The newly expanded house provides a home away from home for families whose children are receiving treatment at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. And demand for such lodgings has skyrocketed. For example, more than five times as many children received new organs at the hospital in 2003 as received the same treatment in 1994. To compound matters, these patients now tend to be discharged earlier, meaning that they will require months of outpatient care. Those who live far away need a place to stay nearby.
In 1997, in response to increased demand, the board of the Ronald McDonald House decided to expand. By 2001 when construction began, they were turning away 500 families a year for lack of space.
The renovation doubled the size of the facility, which now offers 47 rooms for $10 a night to families that live more than 50 miles away from the hospital. While the house added special quarters for immune-suppressed children who need to be kept safely apart, it also enhanced its communal spaces to help other recovering children and their families establish connections with each other.
“Here in the new house, we’re all together and can watch out for each other,” said Angel. “It’s one big family.”
According to Executive Director Honey Meir-Levi, the main building is designed to foster that sense of community. Multiple seating areas in the cheerful “great room” promote group conversation. Because the private rooms don’t have televisions, families gather in the spacious TV room. The vast kitchen has 10 stovetop areas so parents can cook separately but simultaneously. And the nearby activity lab, which is stocked with toys and art supplies, brings children together to play.
“Cecilio loves to paint,” said Angel. “And he loves the teenagers who come to play with the kids.”
Keeping children both entertained and on track with their education has become more important as the Ronald McDonald House has seen families staying for longer periods of time. “Because so many families stay for three months or more,” said Meir-Levi, “we need to provide more educational opportunities and other types of programming.”
One program, called Computer Learning for Ill Kids, is up and running in the new facility. The house now has 15 computers that youngsters use for school, e-mail and fun. Recently, the residents (and some of the staff) have been competing for top score on a popular computer game, Snood.
If togetherness makes the house a home for Cecilio and his grandmother, you’d expect that it offers a different experience to children who require isolation following heart or lung transplants. Yet families staying in the isolation wing make the same assertion: “I feel right at home here,” said Jill Hagen, whose 16- year-old daughter, Lexine, is recovering from a double lung transplant in one of the eight fully-equipped suites in the immune wing.
Lexine wouldn’t have been eligible to stay in the original Ronald McDonald House because it couldn’t provide appropriate isolation. But she’ll be spending three months at the new house. She’s already enjoying all the comforts of home in her suite, which includes a kitchen, a bedroom (with one queen- and one twin-sized bed), a large bathroom, a living room with a foldout couch and a TV with a DVD player.
“It’s designed and set up really nicely,” said Jill Hagen. “The colors are warm and inviting, we can cook our own food, and it’s very, very comfortable.”
And despite her isolation, Lexine can take advantage of the house’s library, magazine, and DVD collections. Soon, her computer will arrive from Vancouver, Wash., where she lives – giving her another connection to the outside world. Indeed, the house’s informal Snood tournament may be getting another competitor.
Share This Story