The Cornish Family

“This was day one of a wild journey into the unknown…”

Hi, we are the Cornish family. Our son Nolan was born on May 17, 2017, at 33 weeks gestation. We’ll spare the details on the delivery, let’s just say it involved 911 at 3 in the morning on the roadside and my (Kevin’s) introduction to being a labour/delivery nurse. This was day one of a wild journey into the unknown world of NICUs, feeding tubes, children’s hospitals, scary ambulance rides, air ambulances, heart surgeries, airway surgeries, tracheostomies, trying to care for our older son Nathan who was just about 3 years old at the same time, and being scared/stressed a lot of the next 2 years. Nolan has Down Syndrome and we were aware of his likely having medical needs after he was born, but not prepared to the extent it would develop. We were in and out of hospitals in Weyburn and Regina more times than we can remember due to frequent breathing difficulties and illnesses for Nolan complete with him turning blue multiple times and many late-night ambulance rides and investigations by many doctors on how to help our son. Our story covers two provinces as Nolan was presented for heart surgery in Edmonton when he was 6 months old, to repair holes (ASD, VSD for those that like medical lingo) in his heart in hopes that this would solve/help the health issues Nolan was facing. We were told that we could expect a two to three-week post-op period after his heart surgery, and a return home…well, that turned into a five-month stay when it was discovered during surgery that Nolan’s airway was very narrow and he needed multiple surgeries to attempt to give him a stable and safe airway and also giving him time to grow and get bigger physically. He was given a tracheostomy and we were taught to be his medical team at home. We transferred to Saskatoon Hospital in April 2018 and Nolan celebrated his first birthday in one of the multipurpose rooms of RMH Saskatchewan. We were finally home in June of 2018! We have had numerous check-ups and repeat visits to Saskatoon since, and RMH still feels like our home away from home. Nolan is now 6 years old and a going concern in grade 1 and loves music, baseball, dancing, his grandparents, and bugging his older brother and his dog Charlie.

This is a brief glimpse of our story, and we write this only as representatives of many, many families going through or that have gone through incredible, scary, heart-breaking, victorious medical roads with our most valued things in life…our kids. We want to honour the many people who supported us and to honour the many families we have met along the way. We are proud and happy to be a representative for RMH Saskatchewan and the only way I can try to capture it is to say that Ronald McDonald House is a miracle you didn’t expect in the craziness of life. We were able to have an affordable, beautiful place to stay when far from home. We had a safe and fun place for our older son to play and laugh away from hospital stress, and many activities to distract us as well. We had shoulders to cry on with other families who understood, and met many beautiful volunteers and staff that came to be like family. As you support Ronald McDonald House Charities, know that you are supporting real people like us and that it is appreciated beyond words.

“This is a brief glimpse of our story, and we write this only as representatives of many, many families going through or that have gone through incredible, scary, heart-breaking, victorious medical roads with our most valued things in life…our kids.”

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