When her daughter was hospitalized with leukemia for three months, Brenda Wright said she sat and slept on hard chairs in the waiting room with parents of other young patients for the first six weeks. Families of sick kids
get break in hospital
By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com"I wish this was here a few months ago," she said, touring a new Ronald McDonald House Family Room at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children with her daughter, Angelica, 12.
The Kauai woman stayed at a Ronald McDonald House, but it was too far to go to eat or rest when Angelica was in the intensive care unit, she said.
"I wanted to be close by. This (Family Room) is real good because when you're in ICU, you're stuck," she said. "You have nowhere to go."
Providing "a home away from home" for families, allowing them to remain close to critically ill children and yet have some respite, is the purpose of the first Ronald McDonald House Family Room in a Hawaii hospital.
The two separate Ronald McDonald Houses, established in 1987 and last year, provide overnight facilities for families of seriously ill children from the neighbor islands and across the Pacific.
With the Family Room, RMH for the first time is addressing needs of Oahu families who rarely leave their children's bedsides, said Geri Chong, RMH Charities executive director.
Kapiolani chaplain Gail Sugimoto-Leong blessed the facility during a grand opening Friday, and the room was open to families today.
"It's supposed to feel like they've left the hospital," said Kristi Koga, RMH manager. "It's supposed to feel like home."
Immediate relatives of children in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units have first priority because they are big wards with chairs only for parents, she said.
"They are not allowed to eat or sleep in the units," Koga said. "They have to come out for a break."
Immediate relatives of children in the Wilcox, Carter and PAU units will be considered next for use of the 400-square-foot room. It can accommodate up to 15 people.
Those visiting the room during the formal opening were as impressed as Wright, who hopes to use it when Angelica receives outpatient treatment and a possible bone marrow transplant.
"It's going to be really, really nice," she said.
The room is staffed by RMH volunteers, coordinated by Malia Martyak, and is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
It has a fully equipped kitchen with a coffee station and snacks, a family room, teen/privacy room, children's area, laundry facilities, televisions, VCR, radio, CD player, toys, books, magazines and computers with Internet access.
Photographs of children who are or have been patients at the hospital complete the homey environment.
Chong said "the same spirit of caring and giving" that created the two overnight Ronald McDonald Houses went into creating the Family Room.
"It was very much like giving birth to a special, long-awaited child," she said, acknowledging an "extended family" of partners who made it possible.
As officials discussed the significance of the Family Room, children passed through the hallway attached to IV poles and other equipment or wheeled by attendants.
"That's why we're here today," said Larry O'Brien, president and chief executive officer of the Kapiolani hospitals.
"We're here to celebrate heroes," who include children, as well as doctors and nurses, he said.
"Many of them know this as their home. It's the only place many of them have been and many will always be."
Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, presenting a proclamation from Gov. Linda Lingle recognizing the respite space, said he was moved by the project and collaboration involved.
With the health-care system and government strapped financially, he said more help is needed from private agencies and charities "to make dreams come true."
Advanced medical technology "has made what were considered hopeless cases very treatable," and more children with cancer and leukemia are treated as outpatients, Chong said.
Families needing lodging and services while children are treated have increased 10 percent a year for the past five or six years, and services are needed for longer periods, she said.
Supporters of the Family Room include Kapiolani, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Mary & Walter Frear Eleemosynary Trust, Alexander & Baldwin Foundation, Ching Construction, Design Logix, First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu, Home Depot, Kotero Design Corp., Oahu Visitor Industry Charity Walk and Sears.
