Ruth Gibbons knows all about the value of parents' accommodation in hospitals. Last year, she spent seven months in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, with her baby Jonathan. She returned to the hospital with Jonathan for a one-month stay in January and expects to be back this month.
"I suppose you could say it has become a home away from home for me," she says. Jonathan was born in Galway at 2 a.m. on a May morning last year to Ruth and husband Ger. The child had congenital abnormalities and was rushed to Dublin at 8 a.m. for surgery. Ruth expected to be in Dublin for a few weeks but didn't return home until November, apart from a two-week break.
"When we were told he was sick, we came straight up. I didn't even think of where I was going to stay. After 36 hours without sleep, it was so good to have a bed and a room to sleep in."
Jonathan had the first of seven operations and his mother started to establish a routine for herself. Meanwhile, back in Galway, Ger cared for their three other children, now aged between three and eight years old, and tried to visit as often as he could.
"If someone had told me I'd still be in Crumlin seven months later, I'd never have believed it. But when you have a sick baby, you don't care as long as you can be near him," Ruth says.
Jonathan needed operations on most of his major organs. Just two flights of stairs and two corridors separated him from Ruth. She spent most of her day in the ward and had her meals in the canteen. "You have to discipline yourself. I remember sitting in the ward one Thursday and realising that I hadn't been outside since Sunday. When Ger came up, he was great for saying: `let's go outside for a walk'.
"One of the most positive things about the accommodation is that you meet a lot of parents in the same position," she says. One mother who had been in the hospital for some time was of particular help. "She told me to take every day as it comes and not to think of the days ahead. Ignorance is bliss. If you thought you would be there for months, you'd probably cave in."
She has heard that facilities for relatives are far superior in other countries but is grateful for the hostel. "I don't know what I would have done without it. The only drawback is that the kids can't stay but when they open the house for families nearby, that will change."
Jonathan will always have health problems, Ruth says, but she is optimistic. "It's a lifelong thing, but he's a fighter. He's a hardy little fellow."