HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAY FAMILIES

Aug 12 by Lisa Valentino

We anticipate around 50 families this year and here’s just a few that need your help ~
Family one…… We have a mom with a very sick child at UNC. The child has Leukemia and is three years old. He has been through two blood chord transplants with little success. This is a single mom with another child who is six. Mom has been evicted from her home and had one car repossessed. We were able to help them get another car and help pay for cheaper home to rent. The only problem is this home is not in the best neighborhood. Mom has no family around to help. She gets up in the morning, gets her six year old off to school, drives to Duke to see her sick child, and makes it back to school in the afternoon before school gets out for the day. She lives 2 hrs from the hospital. She cannot work. If she works, then her sick child is left at the hospital alone. She has already been approached by social services, because she went two days without going to the hospital. The other child was sick and out of school. Of course, there was no money for daycare.

Family two……… This is a mom with four children. One of the girls has Leukemia. She does have a boyfriend who helps as much as possible. She lost her home and moved in with her mom and grandmother. She spent time at the hospital while her elderly mother went back to work to help pay the bills. Over a period of three weeks last spring, her mother and her grandmother past away. Since then, the family has had to move to a cheaper, two room apartment. There was life insurance money, because mom had to stop paying the premiums. She needed that money for groceries.

Family three……..This is a family of three. Mom, dad, and sick child. The child has SCIDS. He has gone through three blood chord transplants. Just recently, news came back that his disease seems to be progressing fast. He is only three. Mom and dad moved in with grandmother and grandfather, because they could not afford their rent. They both lost their jobs, because they were taking so much time off to go to the hospital. They live three hours away. They do not have any extra money, so if the Ronald McDonald House is full, they sleep in the car. They cannot afford to drive back and forth, and they never leave their child at the hospital alone. They sleep in the car a lot.

Family four………..This is a family of six. One child was born very sick and has never been off the ventilator. Mom and Dad were told their child would not live 36 hrs. The child is now three months. They had a DNR order in place for the child, but he started showing improvements. The DNR was taken off. The doctors said there was nothing else they could do, so mom and dad took their child home to be with his brothers and sisters. Because Dad made just over the cut off point for Social Security the year before, they cannot get any help. The child must have 24 hr. care. They do not qualify for home health services either. So……….mom and dad keep the child in the living room, because he has so much equipment needed to live………..and they sleep on the floor EVERY NIGHT to watch him. They had to get a smaller home due to finances. With three other children, their new home is so small, they cannot even keep extra groceries, supplies, etc…. on hand. Any extra space is filled with oxygen tanks for their sick child. Mom takes 12 hrs. Dad takes 12 hrs., and they also make sure their other children are taken care of……………this does not leave many extra hours in the day.