The Murkison Family
Our experience with the Savannah Ronald McDonald House© began in early December 2011, when our entire family was involved in a car accident outside of Savannah while we were visiting relatives for the weekend. Both our children were admitted to Memorial PICU, though thankfully after only one day our older son Ben moved to a regular room out of critical care. However, our younger son Brian was in extremely critical condition and sustained a traumatic brain injury in the accident. It was while attempting to even understand what had just happened to our family that we first were referred to the House.
I remember my husband David going over earlier in the day to make the arrangements, while I stayed by Brian’s side. That evening I checked in and remember sitting across the desk from Lucy and thinking this is it, my child is about to die. I didn’t think we would even be there more than one night. But Lucy found a way to comfort me, saying she had seen so many miracles, we could see a miracle too.
Brian made it through that next day, and the next. He remained in the PICU for 2 weeks; however the prognosis was very poor. Day in and day out, the staff at the House was so kind to us, providing food, a shoulder to cry on and a place for us to just get away from the stress of the hospital. Eventually, the doctors met with us and recommended removal of care from PICU into hospice because they had never seen anyone have a meaningful recovery from an injury as severe as Brian’s. So we braced for the worst and he was moved.
The entire story of Brian’s miraculous recovery can’t be explained here, but suffice it to say he was not ready to give up. After 10 days in hospice, Brian was transferred back to the PICU at Memorial and the Ronald McDonald House© became our home away from home again. We had begun to imagine that maybe, just maybe, we’d be one of the miracle stories that the staff can share with future residents.
We went through the worst month of our life in December 2011. The Ronald McDonald House© staff did everything they could to help us make it through, and we survived (ALL OF US!). Thank you for everything and know that we will always support Ronald McDonald House Charities© knowing what we know now about how much important work is done.
