I thank you for this idea yet I’m sad what you went through. My daughter has a rare tubal kidney disorder that lands her in the hospital with any vomiting or diarrhea. Having spent 5 days our last visit and to be in Liam’s room was truly an honor. I raised $315 so far and hope you can continue building the funds to provide more rooms equipped like this. Thank you!
Review from Guidestar
My first contact with Liam's Room was through the Junior Woman's Club of Westfield and our annual fundraiser in which we raised money for the creation of the first pediatric palliative care room in Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ. That was several years ago. This past year, I have spent months, in and out of various NYC and NJ hospitals caring for my dad who just recently passed away. With each visit, I marvelled how anyone could do what I was doing for my dad, with a child in those places. Loud, cold, cramped, highly impersonal, uncomfortable, outdated...these were not places conducive to any sort of healing or relief.
Liam's Room should be the standard for all palliative care, but most importantly, for children. What a caring, thoughtful, comfortable place for a child and his or her family to spend the most heart-wrenching and difficult days of their lives. Simply put, Liam's Room fosters a family's love for one another and for the child in need, and what could be more important than that? It's a most difficult toic to address, but end-of-life care should be as beautiful and peaceful as it was in the beginning, and that's what Liam's Room is all about.
Liam's Room was created by Lisa and Peter McNamara after the death of their son, Liam. Liam was born with a devastating neurological condition called Lissencephaly (Miller-Dieker Syndrome). The average life span for someone with this condition is 2 years. During Liam's 16 months, the McNamara family, which included Liam's older brother Travis and twin brother Nathaniel, encountered many cold, sterile hospital rooms and highly competent physicians and nurses focused on treating Liam's symptoms, but failing to provide palliative care to Liam and his family. Indeed, until recently, palliative care has often been associated with adults, particularly elderly individuals. After Liam passed away, Lisa and Peter committed to honoring his life and the lessons they learned from Liam by working tirelessly to create a different experience for families with children suffering from chronic or life-limiting illnesses.
The mission of Liam's Room is to create inpatient pediatric palliative care rooms and services for these families. The organization's purpose is to give children, and their families, a feeling of a home away from home, during their period(s) of care. In the past 5 years, the organization has worked with the Atlantic Health System to create two Liam's Rooms -- one at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ and one at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ -- for this purpose. In addition, the organization has awarded grants to facilitate training of physicians and nurses at these locations in pediatric palliative care to ensure that patients staying in Liam's Room receive active total care of the body, mind and spirit, and families of these patients receive the proper support.
Testimonials from families who have stayed in Liam's Room, which are available on Liam's Room's website, www.liamsroom.org, speak to the tremendous comfort and relief families have received from Liam's legacy during the most difficult times of their lives.
I am one of five founding board members of Liam's Room. It has been my honor to serve on this board and participate in the growth of this organization. I am incredibly proud of the work we have done and to share our success with my own children.