Colorado Springs healing house provides place for families when loved ones are in hospital

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)- A new healing house is giving families of hospital patients a place to rest during treatments.     

The St. Francis - Penrose hospital system says it's serving a rising need for families here in Colorado Springs. 

The house, which is located near the Saint Francis Hospital, gives families a comfortable place to stay while their loved ones are receiving the critical treatment that they need.  nats of them talking

Adam and Vicente Ramirez are father and son, or as they described themselves, best friends. 

"So I had woke up with a really bad nausea the morning of and then went to the emergency room. And from there I couldn't really tell you much. I kind of blacked out, " Adam explained.

Paramedics rushed Adam to Saint Francis Medical Center.

"I caught bacterial meningitis specifically Neisseria Meningitis." 

Five days later, Adam woke up at a hospital with tubes in his throat. 

"It was life or death at that point. Yeah. The septic shock with the meningitis that he had was very rapid and it was very hard to detect what it was without taking blood cultures," Vicente said.

Then doctors told Adam he would have to stay in the hospital longer for intense physical therapy. 

"You know, it changes your whole mental concept and it's you find the strength to be strong in the hospital like most people do. But at some point you're right. You've got other things that you see that's going on and it just adds to the stress," Vicente added.

This is where The Woody and Millie Ingram House came in.

While Adam stayed in the hospital, Vicente stayed there for free making a huge difference in their lives.

"To have this again, it just it helps by decompressing, getting your emotions together before you have to go in there and tackle the next day, " Vicente explained.

The Woody and Millie Ingram House currently has 25 rooms for families to stay in. However, they are working to grow into something bigger, where they can house more than 40 families.