Nadia Hernandez has an autoimmune disease that has kept her hospitalized since January
SAGINAW, Mich. (WJRT) - A Saginaw teenager is now able to come home following a long hospital stay as volunteers help build a ramp to her house.
Her family says 17-year-old Nadia Hernandez has been in the hospital since January because of an autoimmune disease.
Doctors agreed to release her last week but on one condition. She had to have a ramp leading up to her house. At first, it looked like her hospital stay would have to be extended.
"This is the type of work that makes your heart smile," says Josh Winiecke of the United Way of Saginaw County.
Hernandez has been in hospitals since January. She has a rare disease that affects her blood platelets.
"Autoimmune disease that nobody her age should have," says Nadia's mother, Diana. "It kind of attacked her body, which caused her to have a brain bleed. All these complications came right after. She still has fluid in the left side of her brain."
Doctors at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor agreed to end her seven-month hospital stay, but only if her family would be able to build a ramp-up to their State Street home in Saginaw.
The family got lots of quotes of around $1900.
The United Way of Saginaw County and several unions heard about the family's situation.
"It was actually quite incredible how many different unions, right off the bat, just came out and said they wanted to take care of this," says Winiecke.
The estimated cost of this ramp is about $5,000.
"No cost to the family, so all the materials were donated," says Winiecke. "United Way picked up a little of the cost with some of the materials. The carpenters picked up the rest."
"This one here was kind of emergency. They needed it right away," says Dave Sincissen, a training coordinator for Carpenters Local 706. "Normally, we are doing training in-house, but in special circumstances when things need to get done, we can bring them out and do things like this for the community."
A teen battles a rare disease. A family desperately wants her to come home, and people who don't know Nadia Hernandez gather to make it happen.
"Yeah, I am so happy, yeah, so happy. She has been there since January, bet she can't wait to see trees and birds and everything all over again," says Diana.
