OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Marquinn "Q" Buckley II has spent his whole life in the hospital. The 2-year-old suffers from chronic lung disease that doctors say has been complicated by other medical factors such as reflux, pulmonary hypertension, and more.
"He started off being less than a pound, and from the womb he wasn’t supposed to make it so this whole way has been miracles. It’s been disbelief. It’s been a lot of stuff that he’s not even supposed to be capable of," said Ta'Rianca Harris, Q's mother.
On Tuesday morning, Harris and Marquinn Buckley, Q's father, finally took their son home. They say the monumental step forward is so exciting, it doesn't feel real.
"It’s kind of unreal. For two years we’ve had dates where he could possibly come home and then it didn’t work out so now it’s kind of like is this real are we going home. It’s a good feeling," Harris said.
"We’ve been in the hospital for two and a half years. We haven’t seen anything, so to teach him everything, that’s going to be [a great feeling] to see how he reacts, his expressions to things," Buckley said.
The journey to get Q to walk out of the hospital has been a long one. His parents say they've learned so much along the way but it hasn't always been smiles.
"I was scared the most because they told me both of them wouldn’t make it. It was a high chance they both wouldn’t make it. She had two or three blood transfusions so she needed a lot of blood," Buckley said. "What made me feel good about him was they couldn’t get the tubes in but as soon as I walked back there and said my name he opened his eyes and looked directly at me so that gave me a different feeling and it was great."
The effort to get Q healthy wasn't just difficult for his family. Doctors say it was a lot of trial and error. Many things that would typically work on other kids with similar health complications wouldn't work for Q.
"It’s really frustrating. It’s part of those challenges, the medical complications and it really does become problematic when you're used to seeing results with things and you’re hitting a wall and you have to start coming up with different things to manage patients like this. It’s very challenging and it really is a lot of patience and think outside of the box," said Gordon Still, a pediatric pulmonologist at Children's Hospital.
Q's parents say they're extremely thankful for the medical staff that got their son to where he is today. They're excited to be able to finally take him home and do normal family things instead of having to drive to the hospital just to see their son.
"It feels like we can get moving along. We’ve been moving along but now it feels like things as a family at the house together. I don’t have to worry about driving to see our kid," Harris said. "It’s a whole different feeling not having your kid at home and a lot of people don’t understand it because they don’t want their kid at home. But everything we do, we have to plan around him. Plan to come here, have to do things that we need to take care of business, run errands. But now we can just take him with us or sit at home with him."
