Ronald McDonald House Charities Telethon offers family 2nd home while their baby had heart surgery

By JANELLE BURRELL

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    WILMINGTON, Delaware (KYW) — On Thursday, we’ll present our 13th annual Ronald McDonald House Charities Telethon, raising money to help the four Ronald McDonald houses in our area.

Here’s a little more on one family who stayed at the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware. It became a second home while their baby recovered from a life-saving heart surgery.

Five-month-old Greydon Hoffman is now an alert, adorable and growing baby boy, but his first weeks out of the womb were a challenge.

It all began with his mom Taylor’s 20-week prenatal checkup.

“First they told us the gender and we were really excited because we were having a boy,” she said. “And we’ve been wanting a boy since we started having kids.”

But then the doctor returned with news that left the Hoffmans stunned: their unborn baby had a heart defect.

“And we were like ‘what, we have two other healthy children?'” Taylor said.

They knew then that they had a challenging road ahead. A few minutes after Greydon was born, doctors whisked him away. Nine days later, he was sent into an operating room for heart surgery.

“The surgery part…was only about a little less than an hour,” father Greg Hoffman said. “But he had some uncontrolled bleeding that they were having trouble with for a little over three hours. He didn’t almost make it.”

Greydon pulled through, and as he recovered the Hoffmans, who live three-and-a-half hours away, stayed at the ‘Ronald McDonald House’ in Wilmington. It was just across the street from Nemours Children’s Hospital, where Greydon was being treated.

“It was a place to stay for two months, it was a home away from home,” Taylor said. “My kids called it a hotel. They loved it. They thought we were on vacation.”

The Hoffmans were embraced by the Ronald McDonald House team.

“It was nice just being able to connect and have someone to talk to, or meet families who were going through similar situations,” Taylor Hoffman said.

Today, Greydon still has two surgeries ahead of him, and the Hoffmans will be back at the Ronald McDonald House — as Greydon continues his journey ahead.

“We wouldn’t have been able to get through without them,” Taylor said.

“We really can’t say how much we appreciated it,” Greg said. “It was awesome to have that there for us.”

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