We are Making a Difference.
In order to maintain patient privacy, the names of the patients and their families have not been mentioned. These are REAL STORIES that present examples of how similar families may be helped by No Empty Bedsides. The ability to support families this way continues to be a blessing in a time when families need to focus all their attention on keeping their child and family together.
We are reminded every day — especially during this past year — that no act of kindness is too small to make a difference. Here are just a few of our stories from 2021.
A newborn with a genetic condition was gravely ill and in the intensive care unit for many weeks. His single mother had limited means and no transportation. NEB provided her with transportation support so that she could be at her child’s bedside.
An infant with a life-threatening lung disease from another state was transferred to MGH. His mother remained at his bedside. The father joined the mom during a period of extreme critical illness but had nowhere to stay due to COVID visitor restrictions. NEB provided the family with nearby hotel accommodations for several nights so that both parents could be present and involved in their son’s care.
A newborn with a malignancy was transferred to MGH from her home several hundred miles away. The prognosis was dire and the baby had siblings who had never met her. NEB provided lodging so that her siblings could meet their new sister before she died.
2020 was an especially challenging year but we wanted to let you know of two special NEB families we were able to help recently thanks to your wonderful donors.
We were able to help a newborn with a chromosomal anomalie known before birth, whose mother advocated fiercely for her to get every treatment that might be helpful for her, including complicated surgery. Her mother was dependent upon her own mother for transportation to the hospital and when the baby’s grandmother was unable to help with transportation because of her own medical issues, NEB fund was able to provide an Uber account so that the baby’s mother could continue to visit with her baby as she recovered from surgery.
We were able to help a newborn who sadly died of an untreatable tumor, but whose many siblings were able to come and visit from out of state to get to know their new brother before he passed away. NEB provided the family with hotel rooms, without which they would not have been able to come a visit.
We helped a little girl who was in the highest category of urgency on the list for transplant for a liver, and her parents had been living on donations since they arrived from abroad when she was 7 months old. We used NEB funds to help offset lost wages and cover rent.
We helped a newborn with severe genetic problems whose young parents were struggling with an unanticipated early birth and long hospital stay. We were able to ease the cost of transportation and parking for them, and allow the mother to use public transportation when the father was working using their one car.
We helped a family from Central America who came looking for experimental treatment for their child’s extremely rare cancer, with lodging. We were able to pay for some “not quite homemade but way better than hospital cafeteria” food so they could eat more comfortably with familiar foods.
One parent had to sacrifice stable housing and employment in order to maintain presence at their child's bedside. Funding from No Empty Bedsides allowed us to support this parent's presence by offsetting expenses of parking, meals in hospital, and lost wages. The child had been hospitalized for over a month and had been admitted several times a year with complications of the underlying condition. We were able to give $1000 to support the family’s presence in the hospital, which helped with emotional support, companionship, advocacy, and communication.
An extremely premature infant, with an anticipated stay of at least 4 months, whose working parents did not have a car. We were able to provide monthly rail passes to each parent so that they could freely visit whenever they had time. We were also able to use the back-up child care center based at the hospital as a safe and convenient place for the patient’s older sibling (toddler) to stay during hospital visits. They repeatedly expressed their gratitude and said that there were many times prior to this help that they wished they could visit, but could not afford transportation, or provide reliable care of the sibling.
An immigrant family with two school-aged children affected with a condition requiring total care, who came to MGH seeking any expert care, but without job, housing, insurance, or community. Their entire existence revolved around their children and they were in the hospital at all times, other than when looking for ways to begin a life here. We were able to give them $100/day to defray meal costs.
A toddler aged child hospitalized with complications resulting in near total loss of intestines, whose single mother had difficulty securing shelter housing for herself and an older school-aged sibling. We were able to help with meals, parking, and metro cards for the mother. This made it so much easier to keep the patient from having to be alone in hospital.
AND our success stories continue...
We were able to help a family with very limited resources, whose family was dependent on public transportation (rail and subway) to get to the hospital to be with their new baby after surgery.
We were able to help a non-English speaking family, whose child had been in both acute care and a rehab hospital for many months following a freak accident, by helping them with transportation to and from the hospital.
We were able to help a single mother live at the hospital with her child for several weeks after recovering from surgery by helping with all her meals.
We were able to help parents of a beautiful little toddler, who does not have many more months to live, by allowing them to trade off bedside vigil so one or the other could work. Moving their car in and out of the hospital parking lot had created considerable financial strain and we were able to make a difference by helping with their parking expenses.
We are reminded every day — especially during this past year — that no act of kindness is too small to make a difference. Here are just a few of our stories from 2021.
A newborn with a genetic condition was gravely ill and in the intensive care unit for many weeks. His single mother had limited means and no transportation. NEB provided her with transportation support so that she could be at her child’s bedside.
An infant with a life-threatening lung disease from another state was transferred to MGH. His mother remained at his bedside. The father joined the mom during a period of extreme critical illness but had nowhere to stay due to COVID visitor restrictions. NEB provided the family with nearby hotel accommodations for several nights so that both parents could be present and involved in their son’s care.
A newborn with a malignancy was transferred to MGH from her home several hundred miles away. The prognosis was dire and the baby had siblings who had never met her. NEB provided lodging so that her siblings could meet their new sister before she died.
2020 was an especially challenging year but we wanted to let you know of two special NEB families we were able to help recently thanks to your wonderful donors.
We were able to help a newborn with a chromosomal anomalie known before birth, whose mother advocated fiercely for her to get every treatment that might be helpful for her, including complicated surgery. Her mother was dependent upon her own mother for transportation to the hospital and when the baby’s grandmother was unable to help with transportation because of her own medical issues, NEB fund was able to provide an Uber account so that the baby’s mother could continue to visit with her baby as she recovered from surgery.
We were able to help a newborn who sadly died of an untreatable tumor, but whose many siblings were able to come and visit from out of state to get to know their new brother before he passed away. NEB provided the family with hotel rooms, without which they would not have been able to come a visit.
We helped a little girl who was in the highest category of urgency on the list for transplant for a liver, and her parents had been living on donations since they arrived from abroad when she was 7 months old. We used NEB funds to help offset lost wages and cover rent.
We helped a newborn with severe genetic problems whose young parents were struggling with an unanticipated early birth and long hospital stay. We were able to ease the cost of transportation and parking for them, and allow the mother to use public transportation when the father was working using their one car.
We helped a family from Central America who came looking for experimental treatment for their child’s extremely rare cancer, with lodging. We were able to pay for some “not quite homemade but way better than hospital cafeteria” food so they could eat more comfortably with familiar foods.
One parent had to sacrifice stable housing and employment in order to maintain presence at their child's bedside. Funding from No Empty Bedsides allowed us to support this parent's presence by offsetting expenses of parking, meals in hospital, and lost wages. The child had been hospitalized for over a month and had been admitted several times a year with complications of the underlying condition. We were able to give $1000 to support the family’s presence in the hospital, which helped with emotional support, companionship, advocacy, and communication.
An extremely premature infant, with an anticipated stay of at least 4 months, whose working parents did not have a car. We were able to provide monthly rail passes to each parent so that they could freely visit whenever they had time. We were also able to use the back-up child care center based at the hospital as a safe and convenient place for the patient’s older sibling (toddler) to stay during hospital visits. They repeatedly expressed their gratitude and said that there were many times prior to this help that they wished they could visit, but could not afford transportation, or provide reliable care of the sibling.
An immigrant family with two school-aged children affected with a condition requiring total care, who came to MGH seeking any expert care, but without job, housing, insurance, or community. Their entire existence revolved around their children and they were in the hospital at all times, other than when looking for ways to begin a life here. We were able to give them $100/day to defray meal costs.
A toddler aged child hospitalized with complications resulting in near total loss of intestines, whose single mother had difficulty securing shelter housing for herself and an older school-aged sibling. We were able to help with meals, parking, and metro cards for the mother. This made it so much easier to keep the patient from having to be alone in hospital.
AND our success stories continue...
We were able to help a family with very limited resources, whose family was dependent on public transportation (rail and subway) to get to the hospital to be with their new baby after surgery.
We were able to help a non-English speaking family, whose child had been in both acute care and a rehab hospital for many months following a freak accident, by helping them with transportation to and from the hospital.
We were able to help a single mother live at the hospital with her child for several weeks after recovering from surgery by helping with all her meals.
We were able to help parents of a beautiful little toddler, who does not have many more months to live, by allowing them to trade off bedside vigil so one or the other could work. Moving their car in and out of the hospital parking lot had created considerable financial strain and we were able to make a difference by helping with their parking expenses.
For more information, please email us at giving@noemptybedsides.com
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