Temple Family Story
Jenna Temple is very grateful to the donors of the Ronald McDonald House of Buffalo.
“Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to bond with my son,” Jenna said. “I couldn’t have been with him for the first two months of his life.”
Please donate to the Ronald McDonald House® of Buffalo so that we can continue to help families be there for their sick children.
Jenna lives in Frewsburg, but had to deliver her son in Buffalo so that he could get the medical care he needed. Baby Izack was born Dec. 15 with spina bifada, a birth defect in which the backbone and spinal canal haven’t closed. He also had hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, which can cause damage to his brain.
Jenna’s home is a two-hour drive or even a two-and-one-half-hour drive from Buffalo, depending on the weather. Jenna was glad that a friend told her about the Ronald McDonald House.
“There’s no way I could have afforded a motel room or hotel room,” Jenna said. Even driving back and forth each day costs $40 for gas. That’s expensive, especially since Izack was hospitalized for two months.
When Izack was just two days old, he had surgery to repair his spine as well as many other treatments. Little Izack was very fragile and Jenna needed to be close by.
“The Ronald McDonald House was just three blocks away from the hospital,” she said. “If anything happened, I knew I could be right there.”
Jenna did make one short trip home at Christmastime, but she was awakened at 3 a.m. with a call that baby Izack would need an emergency treatment. Since Jenna was still recovering from a Caesarian section, her sister drove her all the way back to Buffalo.
“After that, I never left Buffalo,” she said. “I couldn’t. It was too scary.”
Jenna is grateful that she was able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House.
“It was a blessing,” she said. “There was no way I could have done it without them.”
Jenna appreciated that the staff and volunteers at the Ronald McDonald House were able to meet the demands of her erratic schedule.
“If I needed a ride to the hospital at 6 a.m., they’d take me,” she said. “They went out of their way to make sure I’d get to the hospital. I could eat whenever I wanted to.”
She could do her laundry at the House, and if she needed to stop in at the pharmacy, volunteers would get her there.
“They made my life a lot easier,” she said.
During this stressful time, they would ask how Izack was doing, and they would listen.
“They made you feel at home,” Jenna said.
After two months in the hospital, baby Izack came home Feb. 9 and is doing pretty well. He still has a heart monitor. The skin on his back is healing well enough that he can now lie on his back, but he may need more work on his skin graft. He may need a shunt replaced.
Izack will continue to need to be seen by doctors in Buffalo, and Jenna has already made plans to stay at the Ronald McDonald House for doctor visits next month.
“Thank God they’re there and thank God for everything they do,” Jenna said. “I’m very grateful to them.” Please use the enclosed envelope or donate online so that the Ronald McDonald House can continue to be a home-away-from-home for families of sick children.
“I know a lot of families are grateful for the Ronald McDonald House. Who knows what would happen to a lot of those babies without their parents being able to see them?” – Jenna Temple
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The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western New York is not a member of the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, but may receive contributions through the United Way Donor Choice Program. The Charity also receives contributions through the State Employee Federated Appeal (SEFA) and Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) programs. You can designate that all, or a portion, of your employee contribution to the United Way, SEFA or CFC come to RMHC.
Our Families Thank You!