Families who stay at San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House often come from far away – some as far away as Ireland, France, Mexico, Japan, and Argentina. Sendy and Dickson Kemeto live in the Marshall Islands, nearly 5,000 miles away from San Diego.
As the birth of their first baby drew near, the young couple traveled to Hawaii to stay with Dickson’s mother in Maui (just before the catastrophic fires there in August 2023). They were devastated to learn in the delivery room that their newborn son, Lahaina, had hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare heart defect that causes the left side of the heart to be extremely underdeveloped. The newborn was transported first to Honolulu and then to Rady Children’s. Dickson recounts their ordeal:
We were overwhelmed. This was our first baby. He was full term and weighed 8 pounds. We never suspected anything was wrong. The news of his condition hit us hard. Before we knew it, our 9-day-old baby was having emergency heart surgery in San Diego.
Sendy and Dickson quickly became knowledgeable about their newborn’s rare congenital birth defect. Without treatment, most infants die within the first two weeks of life. Some cases can be treated with medication, but most require either surgery and/or a heart transplant. Lahaina is now awaiting his second surgery. These surgeries will not cure his HLHS, but they will help restore his heart function.
The Kemetos have gone through a lot since Lahaina’s birth at the end of August. As new parents, they are experiencing everything for the first time and much of it really harrowing. The stress has sometimes been almost unbearable. It means so much that San Diego’s Ronald McDonald House is here for them:
We are so grateful for everything the House has provided for us: a roof over our heads, three meals a day, a place to do our laundry and even an exercise room. We don’t have to worry about anything except our son.
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