| Family first: Joseph Alaniz |
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Ronald McDonald House helps family overcome hardshipBy ED ASHER When Joseph Alaniz’s 2-month-old daughter became sick and had to be placed in intensive care in a Harlingen hospital, he wasn’t sure how he was going to manage his family of six in Brownsville and still be by his baby’s side.But no matter what it took, he was going to find a way. “Because when your child is sick, you have to be there. There are no other options,” Alaniz said. “You have to find a way. “I might have sold the car or something else from the house so we could stay in a motel.” Alaniz didn’t have to sell anything because of the Ronald McDonald House in Harlingen. His baby, Mercedes, had respiratory problems at birth. Doctors said she could go home 16 days after she was born. But nurses still came to the Alaniz’s Brownsville home twice a day to check on her. Then on Oct. 9, a nurse told the family that Mercedes needed to go to the hospital. “She wasn’t breathing real well,” Alaniz said. Mercedes was transferred from Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville to VBMC-Harlingen and placed in intensive care, where she would stay for four days. The Alaniz family quickly learned about Ronald McDonald House, a six-bedroom house that provides a home-away-from-home for families whose seriously-ill children are receiving medical care. Alaniz and his wife, also named Mercedes, were able to leave their four other children in the care of his mother while they moved into the Ronald McDonald House. But Alaniz’s mother, a cancer survivor, still needed help with the children. He would make trips home to Brownsville twice a day to see to their needs. Meanwhile, he was spelling his wife in shifts at the hospital in Harlingen. “We didn’t sleep. My wife would be in the hospital and I would rest an hour or two (at Ronald McDonald House),” he said. “Then I would go to the hospital and she would go to Ronald McDonald House and take a shower and rest. We were going back and forth, swapping off.” On the fifth day, little Mercedes was taken out of intensive care. The whole family stayed at Ronald McDonald House that last day before Mercedes was discharged, happy and healthy. “I don’t have the words to express our gratitude to Ronald McDonald House,” Alaniz said. “Our stay was like better than five star. They treated us like royalty and I don’t know what we would have done without them.” Submit Slice of Life suggestions to Managing Editor Lucio Castillo or City Editor Charlene Vandini at 430-6244 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
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