Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas

Mary Stroud is a very friendly and familiar face at the Las Vegas Ronald McDonald House (RMH). Every morning she can be found in the front room waiting patiently for a ride to University Medical Center (UMC) to visit her granddaughter. While she waits, she crochets. She crochets baby blankets, hats, and booties for her church back home in Moreno Valley, CA.

Mary first walked through the doors of our House on December 17, 2009. Her granddaughter Meco, 21, had been involved in a traumatic rollover accident outside of Needles, CA and was flown to UMC in Las Vegas with life-threatening injuries. When Mary received the phone call about the accident, the officer told her that she’d have to come to Las Vegas to identify the body. This immediately made Mary think that her granddaughter had not survived.

Still in her nightgown, Mary went directly to her church. She had no way to get to Las Vegas. Upon hearing the story, the church’s minister purchased tickets for Mary and her daughter to fly to Las Vegas. When Mary arrived at UMC, she was relieved to find out that Meco was still alive. But the relief was only temporary. Meco had suffered extreme injuries, including several fractures to her skull. She was in a coma, on a respirator, and they did not expect her to live.

At the time of the accident, Meco was returning home to California after a trip to Texas with friends. She was studying to become a registered nurse and was looking into serving in the Army. Mary had raised Meco from the day she was born. She describes her granddaughter as bright, spirited and full of love. Meco also loved to sing and was very active in her local church – the same church that flew Mary to Las Vegas.

Around Christmas, Meco came out of her coma. Doctors told Mary that while her chances of survival were much better, she would never be able to hear, see or speak again. But Mary never gave up hope. She has been by her side every day since the accident, and will continue to be until the day Meco is released. Meco has only recently begun to open her eyes. She can see out of her right eye and hear on her right side. She still cannot speak, but is able to communicate with hand gestures. And while she still has a long road of recovery ahead of her, Mary knows that her granddaughter will one day sing again.

On January 31, Mary celebrated her 69th birthday. She was far away from home and her family and friends, so the Las Vegas Ronald McDonald House staff made every effort to make sure Mary’s day was special. When she came home from the hospital that evening, she was greeted with a bag full of gifts, a homemade cake, and a special birthday tiara. And as RMH staff and fellow families sang a very out of tune “Happy Birthday,” we were all wishing that Meco would be the one to sing “Happy Birthday” to Mary next year.

Dear Ronald McDonald House, I have started to write this thank you so many times and each time I find myself at a loss for words to express the depth of my gratitude for your home and the people within it. So, after a year I thought I would just write from my heart.

When you are pregnant you never think that there will be anything wrong with your baby. You find yourself saying things like "We just want a healthy baby," but you never truly believe that you won't have a healthy baby ... the optimism is inherent. Then that picture is shattered, either before birth or right after and you feel like you have just entered into some sort of nightmare and you will wake up and things will be fine ... except you don't wake up.

When the pediatrician walked into my hospital room and said to me (actually I have no idea what she said to me) all I remember was “transport to Sunrise Children's Hospital, rushing discharge papers, transport team will arrive” .... that's it, that's all I remember. That and the incredible dread .... you see my husband had gone home to shower and was coming back to take mommy and baby home. I will never in my life forget his smiling face walking in and instantly falling when he saw me sitting on the bed sobbing. At some point we both went on auto pilot. Dealing with insurance companies and trying to understand what the doctor's were saying, the social workers showing up with books about heart defects ... the social worker literally lead us out of the hospital and pointed us in your direction ... saying that everything had been arranged and that you were expecting us.

When we entered the Ronald McDonald house we were greeted with instant hugs and overwhelming kindness. We asked how much it was a night and the staff just said we don't worry about things like that right now. You can stay as long as you need to. We were given a tour of the house and reminded repeatedly that we were to make ourselves at home and that if we needed anything to just ask. We never thought we would be there almost a month!

The staff was concerned, without being intrusive. Every night when we came “home,” someone asked about our son, Ronald, and how he was doing, and you cared - really cared. What a blessing in such an uncertain time. When we left we thought what an amazing place ...I am glad it was here for us.

I never thought we would be back. Three months later we were back on your doorstep, sad and incredibly scared for our son. Again your staff showed us incredible hospitality and compassion for our situation. Someone always took the time to ask about Ronald and how he was doing and was there anything they could do for us ...it meant a lot! I am pleased to say that since Ronald's last surgery he has been doing fine. His heart is very stable! I hope that we will never have to cross your threshold again, but I know if we do we will be met with warmth and compassion. I believe that we are surrounded by angels, both seen and unseen that lift us up when we cannot get up ourselves. Thank you for being our angels! I am thankful to have walked in your midst.

Sincerely,

Conni Hulse
Mother of Ronald Hulse Sincerely,

Ronald Hulse at his 1st Birthday party -
getting ready to enjoy his cake!

The Hulse family lives in Golden Valley, AZ. They stayed at the Las Vegas Ronald McDonald House for a month following Ronald’s birth in April, 2008, and returned later that summer for a surgical procedure to repair his heart.

When Regan Peterson came to Las Vegas for a work conference, she never expected to find herself at the Ronald McDonald House. She ended up getting sick on the last day of the conference, and her husband Brian and two children, Alyssa (8) and Aaron (3), drove from their home in Phoenix to pick her up. Along the way however, they were involved in terrible rollover accident near Kingman, AZ. Alyssa’s foot was crushed in the accident, and she was brought to Sunrise Children’s Hospital where doctors worked to salvage her limb. As it turned out, they were able to save the foot, but the large toe had to be amputated. Regan later commented that “it’s hard to be sad about a toe when she survived such a devastating accident.” During the family’s week long stay at the House, Alyssa’s grandparents came to help take care of Aaron and provide emotional support to the family. Upon checking out, her grandfather made a generous donation to our Share-A-Night program, which allows families to stay at the House when they can’t afford our $10 a night donation.

“My son Trennon Paau’s story begins way before his birth. In the year 2000, I became pregnant. The first three months were considered high-risk, but with the help of modern medicine, we made it through that critical first trimester. Then much to our dismay, my water broke at 21 weeks. On February 1, 2001, I gave birth to my daughter, Faith Marie Paau. Being so premature, she only lived a brief thirty minutes.

Nearly a year later, I found out I was pregnant again. The pregnancy began with the same high-risk concerns, but once again the first trimester went well. We found out about a procedure that could help prolong my pregnancy in the instance of an inevitable premature labor. It wasn’t considered a standard practice of medicine and was a risk, but a risk we were willing to take. I just couldn’t lose another child!

We had the procedure performed, and during my third week of bed rest I started spotting - my baby was kicking me where sutures had been placed! Our doctor prescribed some relaxation medication, and within a few days the spotting stopped. By the next week, my baby had turned and was kicking me in my ribs. Boy, that was a huge sigh of relief!

Unfortunately, the relief didn’t last long. The spotting started again one week later, and contractions followed shortly. The decision was made to fly me by Black Hawk helicopter to University Medical Center (UMC) in Las Vegas. Three days later, in the early morning of November 11, 2002, my water broke. At 9:45am, Trennon was born via c- section. He was born at 25 weeks, weighed only one pound, twelve ounces and was only 11½ inches long. We knew it would be a long, tough road and that the odds were stacked against his survival, but we never gave up hope.

When I look at him now and see his progress, I am overwhelmed with the love that I have for him. He is my salvation, sunshine and my dreams rolled all into one. When I hold him, I cry tears of joy and can’t believe we have been blessed with such a wonderful gift. I know that he is extra special because he has his very own guardian angel - his big sister Faith.

"I thank all of his heroes - Dr. Brizuela, the entire NICU staff at UMC, and our wonderful family at the Ronald McDonald House.”

- Crystal Paau

Little Trennon fought hard through those first months of life and was finally able to come home in February of 2003. Crystal and her husband Chad relocated to Las Vegas, and were thrilled to begin life as a family of three!

Dear Ronald McDonald House, To us, the Ronald McDonald House was always just that box where we dropped our change at the drive-thru. That changed, as did our lives, in March of 1999 when we were told that our daughter Amber (11) had a severe narrowing in the artery that delivers blood to her lower body. We were sent to the Ronald McDonald House in Las Vegas by her cardiologist and found that everything was all set up and the staff was waiting for us. After her surgery, Amber spent a week in I.C.U., and the Ronald McDonald House took care of me, my wife Robin, and our two sons P.J. and Max by providing us a comfortable, “homey” atmosphere that greatly reduced our stress. In October 1999, Robin, Amber and I were again welcomed by the Ronald McDonald

House when Amber had a heart catheter procedure. We were told that the ends of the graft placed in her aorta in March were closing because of scar tissue and we had to take her to San Francisco for a special procedure. Then on March 2, 2002, one of Amber’s stints shifted and cut a hole in her aorta and esophagus. She lost over half of her blood and developed a severe bacterial infection in her bloodstream. She had emergency surgery that afternoon. As I write this, I am sitting at a table in the dining room of the House in Las Vegas where I have shared meals for the last 45 days with my family, the staff and volunteers of the House. I am not sure how long Amber will be in the hospital, or how long after her release we will stay here. But I am sure that no matter how long it may be, the staff and volunteers will be here for us. These people will forever be in our hearts. We will continue to stop in just to say “hi” or try to help with fundraisers for this miraculous team of people. I cannot think of any words that express it as deeply as we feel it, so I must simply say “Thank You.”

- Minor M. Adams