EveryChild, Inc. - For Parents


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Two years ago, Luis's life and that of his family changed forever. A horrific car accident put Luis in a coma and in a nursing home. His mom, Yolanda, spent 18 hours a day by his side for the past two years. His brothers, their wives, babies, and girl friends regularly crowded into the tiny room Luis shared with a roommate, Larry. On January 21, Luis went home. Luis going home Amidst the tears of joy and goodbye hugs from almost every caregiver in the nursing home, Luis wheeled out into the fresh January air for home. "It's ironic. Larry, who walks, talks, and takes cares of himself is staying, while Luis who's in a coma is going home." said Lisa Sheppard, Program Administrator for the Family-Based Alternatives Project which helped orchestrate the move. "This shows it's not always the disability, but the support a family gets, that marks whether people stay in nursing homes." When Linda Thune, Family Support Coordinator with EveryChild, met Yolanda in August of last year, she asked a simple question, 'What would it take for Luis to come home?' For Luis's family, the fact that Luis was in a coma was not what prevented him from going home. Thune discovered that the biggest barrier was accessible housing. So she set in motion the many activities that culminated on this winter afternoon. "The family has been waiting for so long. Now Luis is home. This simple fact of being home is at once powerful yet so ordinary. That's the beauty of it-the sheer ordinariness of being home." said Nancy Rosenau, Executive Director. "This is about moving the extraordinary things like special equipment and supplies and nursing care, to the ordinary place Luis's family wants him to be--home." "Now instead of sleeping in a chair next to his bed, Yolanda can sleep in her own bed, and so can Luis," added Sheppard. "Now they don't have to make special arrangements to visit. Luis is home." "Our strategy is to help one family at a time and hope that this family's story will help another family realize their dream," said Rosenau. The strategy seems to be working. Yolanda introduced the EveryChild team to the mom of a young woman in a room down the hall from Luis' who had been asking Yolanda how she did it. "How do you like being home, Luis?" asked Rosenau on a visit to the family home. Luis moved his closed eyelids ever so slightly. "I don't know what Luis understands about being home, but I know absolutely what it means to his family."