Children's National Hospital brings holiday joy to its patients
At Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., hospital staff work to bring hope to their patients during the holidays.
Nine-month-old Marvin Hernandez, born with a rare heart condition, has spent every day of his life there — which will include his first Christmas.
His mom, Joana, commutes from Richmond, Virginia, two hours away to see him.
When asked what she wanted for Christmas, Joana said, "What I want for Christmas would be just for him to be ok."
About 300 kids will spend their holidays in the hospital. Seventeen-year-old Joshua Alton loves to visit the holiday lights in the healing garden. The unicorn display is his favorite.
Joshua said his hope for the new year is, "To be done with cancer next year. To not have a tumor in my spine anymore, hopefully. and start walking again."
Some kids have smaller wishes.
The hospital had Santa set up a workshop to make the holidays a little more normal and magical.
"It's so fun seeing the patients open their bags on Christmas or the nurses will put it out overnight and they wake up and they get so excited because they don't know Santa can come to the hospital," Laura Thackeray, a child life specialist, said.
Hernandez is too young to know about Christmas, but his mom believes there are angels at the hospital.
"I know that even if I'm not near him at all times, I know that he's taken care of. And I have peace," Joana said. Peace and hope for the new year.