Heather Andrews and Craig Harvey pose with their daughter, Eleanor “Ellie” Harvey, outside the Ronald McDonald House entrance at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in Indianapolis. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Being separated was the hardest part.
All Heather Andrews and Craig Harvey wanted was to be close to their little girl. When Eleanor “Ellie” Harvey was born prematurely at 29 weeks old, she needed around-the-clock care at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in Indianapolis.
The prospect of driving back and forth from their Franklin home seemed unbearable.
But they found a solution through the Ronald McDonald House.
“It provided me a safe place to heal myself as a patient but then to be there as a mom,” Andrews said. “I don’t know how we could have been there for her to the extent we wanted to be without it.”
Andrews and Harvey are one of the thousands of local families who find support and comfort in the most difficult of moments through Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana. At the organization’s Indianapolis headquarters, parents can get a place to sleep, breakfast and lunch, and access to resources.
During what could be one of the worst experiences of parents’ lives, being able to have those small comforts is a massive relief, said Karen Doe, director of operations for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana.
“It’s obviously a very stressful time in their lives, so it’s important for families to have an opportunity to rest, to get some food and have that respite — an opportunity to de-stress in a home environment,” she said. “We take care of the families so they can take care of their child.”
Throughout the month of December, the welcoming common areas of the Ronald McDonald House’s Indianapolis location transform into a winter wonderland.
Snowmen and nutcrackers pop up on ledges and mantels over the home’s fireplace. Poinsettias are tastefully arranged around the house. Cookies and snacks are set out for families spending anxious days and nights at nearby Riley Hospital for Children.
Local businesses, such as Milestone Contractors, Sun King Brewing and Barnes & Thornburg law firm, decorate special trees to make the hallways and offices a little brighter through its Deck the Halls contest.
For the parents spending the holidays at the house while their children receive medical care, it’s a small gesture to bring some happiness to a stressful time.
“They’re already stressed, but it being the holidays adds another layer of craziness in everyone’s lives,” Doe said. “We want our families to feel some joy over the holidays if they need to be here.”
The idea of the Ronald McDonald House stems from an effort in Philadelphia in the mid-1970s. The concept of having a place where families of sick kids could stay during treatment spread all over the country, including to central Indiana, where the first house opened in 1982.
Families can get their own rooms near Riley Hospital for Children or other hospitals, so they don’t have to get a hotel room or commute back-and-forth to their own homes. They can get prepared meals from the house’s staff, or cook their own meals in a community kitchen.
“Our whole purpose is to provide a home-away-for-home for families of sick or injured children,” Doe said. “We have families coming from all around Indiana, so we provide a room, meals and access to any services they would need to take that burden off of them while they’re taking care of their child.”
Andrews and Harvey discovered that mission firsthand. Andrews was seven months along in her pregnancy when their world was upended on April 1. She developed severe preeclampsia, a blood-pressure condition, and gave birth to Ellie at just 29 weeks. Andrews required a partial hysterectomy and suffered heart failure, landing her in Riley’s obstetrics intensive care unit.
Ellie was dangerously premature — weighing 2 pounds 4 ounces. She was immediately rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit at Riley.
From the start, Ronald McDonald House Charities offered their support.
“After I was in the ICU and eventually released from the hospital, I was obviously healing a lot myself, since I had emergency surgery,” Andrews said. “Craig and I both wanted to stay really close to Ellie during her time in the NICU.”
Harvey was sleeping on a pullout couch in the NICU, but as Andrews recovered from surgery, sleeping on a couch wasn’t conducive to healing. She was also concerned about being able to breastfeed and pump for their daughter at an unpredictable time for her.
Ronald McDonald House opened up one of its rooms located inside Riley Hospital for Children, so she could recover just a few floors away from where Ellie was fighting for her life.
“I could still be incredibly close to her, but also heal myself from a pretty traumatic experience,” Andrews said. “I had a normal bed and a place to stay when I needed to rest and recuperate myself, which was just two floors below (Ellie).”
At the same time, Ronald McDonald House provided other amenities. Harvey and Andrews could get breakfast or lunch at the facility every day. If Harvey needed to take a nap during the day, he could stop into the room and get rest.
Toiletries such as toothbrushes, deodorant and shaving razors were available if families didn’t have them. A volunteer offered to give haircuts to parents of children at Riley if they wanted one.
“It’s offering up a slice of normalcy that you don’t have during a very abnormal time of your life,” Andrews said.
For 70 days, Ellie clung to life at Riley Hospital for Children. Her parents were able to stay with her throughout that entire time.
Staff members at the Riley NICU commented on how their constant presence helped Ellie heal, Harvey said.
“They said it continued Ellie to heal a lot faster than she would if we weren’t able to be there every single day for the long hours,” he said. “It’s truly a blessing from an emotional perspective to be so close.”
Nearly nine months later, the family is thriving. Andrews has fully recovered from her traumatic delivery. Eleanor, while experiencing the normal challenges for premature babies such as slightly delayed development and weakened lungs, is a happy child.
“If you’d look at her, you’d have no idea she had the challenges she did,” Andrews said.
Prior to their experience, Harvey and Andrews never thought much about Ronald McDonald House Charities. Certainly, they’d heard of the organization, even if they didn’t entirely know what the group did.
But the family credits Ronald McDonald House to help save them, Harvey said.
“It’s providing a need that no one else does. You get housing, you get food, and really providing comfort,” he said. “We always say we now have an extended family up there, and it’s really because of the Ronald McDonald House staff. They’re an extension of our family.”
AT A GLANCE
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Indiana
What: A local organization a supportive home-away-from-home for families of children receiving medical care at Riley Children’s Health and other area hospitals.
Where: 435 Limestone St., Indianapolis
How to support: To support Ronald McDonald House programs, people can make monetary donations, sponsor a guest room at the house, buy from the organization’s wish list, or collect pop tabs, among other things. To learn all the options, go to rmhccin.org/give.
Information: rmhccin.org
