Jonathan’s Story

Jonathan is a very happy baby; he is always smiling. Jonathan is 11 months now. He was a full term baby weighing 7 pounds, perfect as can be. I started to worry when he wasn’t able to poop. At first, doctors said it’s normal that babies take a few days to have a bowel movement, but I started to worry as his tummy started to get very extended.

Jonathan had his first surgery in Oklahoma when he was just 7 days old, but doctors weren’t able to diagnose and didn’t know how to treat him. Jonathan only has 20 cm of healthy intestine, with the other 220 cm having no ganglion cells. That’s when they said it would be best for him to be transferred to Omaha. That is the worst thing to hear: your baby needs to be transferred 7 hours away from home away from my family. I was devastated and extremely sad I had to leave my family.

The first thing on my mind was “What am I going to do? I don’t know anybody in Omaha, where am I going to stay?” That’s when the social worker mentioned RMH. It was a true blessing. I now had a place to stay, a place to shower, to have a nice meal, a place to relax and find comfort like at home. This is the third time I have stayed at RMH. I have been here since April this time around. RMH has helped me in so many ways, I have the privilege to have my family come and visit me and spend time together. Thanks to them we can all be together in this tough journey. I love RMH. They are so wonderful at helping my family stay together!

Jonathan is still having some issues. His bowel is not responding to the surgeries the way we were hoping, but I  know the doctors will do their best, as they always do. His next surgery is July 20, 2015, and thanks to RMH my husband was able to come and stay with us so we can be together and be there for our baby. I don’t really know how much longer we will have to stay at RMH; it will depend on his surgery outcome and if his bowel responds well enough to where he won’t need another surgery for a while. Thanks to RMH, I have all the support I need.

-as told by Jonathan’s mom, Miriam