Jayson's Story
Nearly every morning, Brenda Flores’ fiance Jayson Lenzsch leaves the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House at 4am to drive to his job in New Jersey while she prepares to go to the hospital.
This has been their routine for over a year now, since their son Jayson, Jr. was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). “He’s never been home,” Brenda says of her son, Jayson. “He’s spent his whole life in a hospital room.” And Brenda is there with him, by his side for almost every waking hour of her day.
Three hours after his birth in May of 2007, Jayson was transported to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to have the first of three required surgeries to treat his heart, which is underdeveloped on the left side. “Basically, he has half a heart,” his mother explains. Two major and several minor surgeries later – the result of infection and complications – Jayson remains in the hospital, on a ventilator and preparing for a pacemaker. “It’s hard to see your child like this,” Brenda says, as she rocks Jayson in her arms. “The little smiles are what make you strong.”
Brenda had never heard of the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House until a social worker at the hospital told her about it. She and her fiancé would make the hour long drive back and forth to Vineland, NJ, getting home at 2am and returning to the hospital at 8am. “Now I don’t think I could handle it if we weren’t staying here at the House,” she says. “Just having a place to relax, to sleep for a while, is so helpful.” Even though her length of stay is much longer than average, Brenda finds that it is still easy to connect with other families who are staying at PRMH.
“We’ve made a lot of friends here. Being with other people who understand is nice,” she says. “We see beyond the wires and the machines. People who don’t see that every day, it hits them and they can’t deal with it. Even family members can’t cope with it sometimes.” This ongoing support from fellow House families has made such a difference to Brenda, who also has to handle with her own health issues.
A result of developing diabetes with the pregnancy of her first child Destiny ten years ago, she herself has been hospitalized twice during her stay at PRMH. “It’s very difficult trying to do everything. Sometimes you feel like you are the only person going through this,” she says. “Then you look around and see you are not the only one. You’re not alone.”
Brenda hopes to have Jayson home for the first time by July, before her next birthday – a perfect present, not only for her but for her daughter Destiny as well, who now only gets to visit her mom and brother on the weekends. Yet the Flores-Lenzsch family is familiar to waiting for the things they want most. “We couldn’t even hold Jayson for his first three months,” Brenda says. Now, she waits to hear his first words. “He can’t talk on the ventilator. I cannot hear him say ‘mom’.” And, it will be at least another year and a half until his third and hopefully final major heart surgery – the standard time frame for HLHS.
Still, Brenda continues to draw her inspiration from her son, who loves the cartoon Oswald and throws kisses to his family. “My son has shown me that if he can wake up every day going through what he has gone through, then I can have patience. If he can fight, then I can be patient.” And until the day that Brenda brings Jayson home, she will have a place at the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. “This is my second home.”
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The Heart of the House is our Volunteer program. The volunteers serve in many ways, helping to make the House a comfortable and supportive place for our families. The caring volunteers of the PRMH make this House a home.
