CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Madison home for 'Christmas'
Girl, 3, celebrates holidays before surgery

By Jennifer Brett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/05/06

Madison Ringenberg was up early on Monday. It was Christmas Day, after all. Her birthday, too.

She dressed quickly, her mom said, selecting a hair bow and shirt with pink hearts on them. Madison made a fist, stuck out her pinky and thumb, and twisted her hand back and forth to sign an urgent message.

"Go play!"

Madison, 3, has spent nearly a third of her life in the hospital. Born with DiGeorge syndrome, she has heart problems, hearing impairment and a severely depressed immune system. Her first open-heart surgery was performed three weeks after she was born, and she struggles with chronic infection. Because of the risk she'll catch something, she cannot go to theme parks, the zoo, or restaurant play areas.

She has never spent Christmas at home, and this year is likely to be no different.

"Every year I get upset prior to Christmas," said her mother, Lisa Ringenberg. "I think, why can't we be home? Why can't we be normal?"

This year, Ringenberg and husband Dan were hopeful that things might change. Maybe Madison and her brother Benjamin, 7, could wake up together on Christmas morning to discover the bounty Santa had brought. Maybe they'd all be home for Madison's fourth birthday the week after Christmas.

But about a month ago, Madison was getting winded and turning blue after the slightest exertion. Doctors took a look at her MRI results and had grim news. Without another surgery, she would not live to see spring.

As the Ringenberg family prepared for another holiday in the hospital, inspiration struck. What if Christmas and her birthday could come early? After a few phone calls, the Chuck E. Cheese in east Cobb offered to open for a couple of hours Monday morning —- just for Madison.

"I work around hundreds of kids, but to touch this one really meant a lot," said Jeanne Pireda, the restaurant's general manager.

Before Pireda left work Sunday night she set out birthday party decorations. Another staffer arrived at 7 a.m. Monday to blow up balloons. Madison's mother and a group of friends used sanitizing wipes to clean any surface Madison might touch. Then it was time for the party.

"You want to go play?" Lisa Ringenberg asked her daughter.

The child was awestruck for a moment at the bright and blinking children's paradise, with its forest of arcade games. Then a motorized Barney car caught her eye, and she was off.

The relatives, friends and health care workers who gathered for the celebration fought tears as Madison climbed through tunnels and danced to "Happy Birthday."

"It was so exciting to see her do so many normal things," Lisa Ringenberg said.

Swallowing is difficult for Madison, so she is fed through a tube. But she was able to lick some of the cheese off a slice of pizza. She lacks verbal skills and communicates with sign language, but tried to sing along during her birthday song.

"She seemed so happy," Pireda said.

Having spent weeks in therapy to try to strengthen her lungs, Madison was able to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. "It was the first time," her mother said.

Madison will be back in the hospital on Friday. Surgeons at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta will give her a new pulmonary valve to help her heart and lungs work better. Her family isn't expecting her home before the middle of January, but they hope the surgery will improve her endurance and stamina.

And they hope that next Christmas, for the first time, Madison will be home.