Supporting Evelyn Otto’s Family During Her Hospital Stay

Are you moving into the hospital? Uh, yeah. How long? Uh, 300 days.

You've been at the hospital for 300 days? Yep. Why can't your family go home yet? We're waiting for a heart.

She went into the hospital with a tummy pain and it turned out that she had dilated cardiomyopathy. It basically means that her muscle in her heart gave out and that was after nine heart surgeries that she's already had. You're 6 years old? Are you strong?

Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Watch out.

What What does a normal day for you and your family look like? My husband is working full-time during the week and I'm down here in Rochester. I spend my days with my daughter. She's kind of tethered to the machine there.

She can only get out of her room once a day. How far is home from here? It's about 2 hours away. Between my husband and I, yeah, we go back and forth driving every other day.

We have a son, too. He's three. Oh gosh, you got your hands full. Yeah, we're in the thick of it right now.

How often do you have to choose between work, being here, and paying bills? Every day I get I have to choose. I am working part-time. My husband spends a day and a half down here once a week with her and so blessed to have my husband.

It's got to be so hard for him to be here with her. All week and after we see the doctors, literally fighting for her life until she can get a new heart. Do you know when she's going to get a transplant? They said 6 to 12 months, but statistics are showing even longer now.

What would it look like if you could be here with your daughter and not have to worry about paying bills? There's really no way to describe how that would help our family. I'm not with my husband. He can't be with his daughter.

be with me and I'm not with my other son but once a week. We're completely split. So, it would bring our family back together. What's your dream, Evelyn?

Um heart. Heart? She wants a heart. That's her dream.

We're just like one bad prayer away from choosing between coming here or going to work. We take it in waves, you know. Who do you want to go home There we go. That's in there.

Almost every night we do a little pillow talk. She'll say, "Let's talk about going home." I love you. I love you, Daddy. I love you, too.

I love you, too. I love you, Daddy. I love you, too, sweetie. It just makes a world of a difference to her when we're here versus when we're not here.

I want to give you something, okay? And I want you to pick your favorite toy. Can you do that for me? Thank you.

Oh my gosh. Thank you. We're going to have to go shopping, virtual shopping with you. As dark as the tunnel is, we know that there's light at the end of it.

It's just a matter of when. I don't take a day for granted. So, I enjoy the little things in life. We just having conversations like this.

Today is a very bright day for us. So,