Click the above image for a PDF design of a day in the life of one hospitalized boy.
Matthew
Maddux Cleveland, 18 months old, has an 80 percent chance of beating
cancer. This is not his first fight for life. For the past two months,
his family’s main residence has been a variety of rooms at All Children’s
Hospital and the Ronald McDonald House East in St. Petersburg.
From
the beginning Matthew has not been well. Four hours after his birth,
he was rushed from his hometown of Sarasota to All Children’s Hospital
for specialized treatment. Doctors found three holes in his heart.
His mother, Vanessa Maddux, now 20, was hospitalized more than an hour
away after her emergency Cesarean surgery. It kept her away from her
child for four days.
After
three weeks Matthew was strong enough to go home. After that, Maddux
said Matthew had to see a cardiologist every five to six months. “Matthew
was healthy till about two months ago,” Maddux said. “We took him
to the ER in Sarasota. They did a bunch of tests and said he had leukemia.”
Maddux
and her mother, Patricia Fay, 55, returned to the Ronald McDonald House
East, a few blocks from All Children’s. “It’s nice to be here
but it’s not home,” Maddux said.
The
Ronald McDonald House charges the family $2 a day to stay and provides
food and facilities, allowing them to focus on Matthew’s recovery.
When they were unable to stay in the house, they paid $280 a week to
stay in a hotel.
If
Matthew is released as an outpatient without an appointment the next
day, the family is not allowed to stay at the Ronald McDonald House
and must seek out other arrangements. Every day is a challenge, Fay
said. “You can’t plan what will happen.”
Maddux
said she took so much time off to be with her son, she lost her job.
She has been thinking of moving to St. Petersburg and has begun seeking
employment at the hospital in hopes of being near her son.
Maddux
said she tries not to worry. But as a mother, it is hard not to.
“Everything is tiring. … Eight hours
at the hospital feels like 13.”
