After 10 Months In The Hospital, Baby Henry Heads Home

ANNANDALE, Minn. (WCCO) - There's no place like home.

It's a simple phrase, but sometimes getting there can be anything but simple, especially for little Henry Dolan.

"Right now it's busy, but we love it, good busy," Mollie Dolan, his mother, said with a smile.

Better to be busy in the comfort of your living room than a hospital room.

"I feel like I've spent the last 10 months in the hospital," she said.

Her estimation is pretty accurate. Henry was born premature about 10 months ago. He had heart defects that required two surgeries, including a transplant.

At one point, doctors gave him a 2-percent chance to live. But Mollie and her husband's little miracle kept on fighting, all the way to the point where he was finally cleared to leave hospital life behind and go home.

He traded in a hospital bed for a crib and play mat, and his nurses for none other than mom and dad.

"When Henry got home, that first 24 hours, I have a lot of respect for those nurses behind the scenes," the boy's his father, Sam, said.

Those are just a few of the realizations Sam is having now that his son is home. Mollie was the one who stayed at Henry's side while he was in hospitals across the Midwest.

Sam stayed at home to take care of their two daughters while also fitting in a few weekend trips to visit his son. But now he merely needs to go across the hall in his house to see his little boy.

"It's bringing me closer to him," he said. "It's making me realize how much work [Molly has] been doing."

Henry requires an oxygen tube until his lungs get more strength. He wears a feeding tube. Then there's the medicine.

"We had to come up with some type of system because he takes 14 different medications a day, several times a day," Mollie said.

That's where dad and his tackle box tactic came into play.

"That was the only way I could think of to simplify it, because as you can see it's a lot," Sam said, looking down at several tackle boxes covered in color-coded stickers.

Each one verifies the time of day for the medicine and the proper dosage. Inside the boxes are pre-filled vials that are carefully separated.

"Took a long time to kind of get everything together but we're getting in the swing of things," Mollie said.

Their sink is filled with more empty syringes and vials than dishes. Good thing they don't need to cook much.

Through a website called Meal Train, families pick a day to make a dish and drop it off at the Dolans' home.

"It's been so nice to not have to worry about meal planning and grocery shopping and cooking and then the mess that comes with it all," Mollie said.

Most of the meals are dropped off by strangers, people traveling from all over the state and possibly beyond just to help out.

"It's been amazing," said Sam, who admitted to not being the best chef when his wife was gone. "My wife has not sat down and she wants the best for her family."

The Dolans have enough to stress about now, except having to wonder if Henry would ever make it home.

"We want to keep him home, don't we," Mollie asked her 4-year-old daughter Ava, who replied with an excited "Yes!"

Mollie and Sam said their daughters love playing with their little brother. They even make sure his breathing apparatus stays in his nose if it falls out.

"It's just so good to be back with all my kids together and just the girls, to see Sam, be a family and do normal, normal things again," Mollie said. "This is our new normal."

It's a normal she was confident one day would happen.

"Never, ever lose hope," she said. "Because you know, where we started and where we are now, I never lost hope."

The Dolans want to thank everyone who has supported them along the way, especially everyone on the Hope for Henry Facebook page.

"People are saying all the time 'We love him' or 'he's like my 6th grandchild,'" Mollie said of people on the Facebook Page. "I just don't have any words for it other than it's been incredible. People have been so supportive and so amazing, and it's just more than I would have ever thought."

If you'd like to assist the Dolan family with meals through Meal Train, click here!