Omaha toddler heading home from hospital for the first time

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - At just over 2 1/2 years old, Marquinn “Q” Buckley II is making huge strides.

His parents Marquinn Buckley and Ta’Riance Harris have their handsful with the adventurous little guy.

“Personality from his mom but the energy from me,” Marquinn said with a laugh, mom agrees.

Today, Marquinn and Ta’Riance are taking their son home from Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals Omaha Campus.

“Well, he started off being less than a pound, 13.8 ounces. And from then, from the womb, he wasn’t supposed to make it,” Harris said.

Born at only 27 weeks, Q has never lived outside of a hospital.

“He was born at Bergan and then was transitioned to Children’s NICU and then the ICU and then the floor at Children’s and then to Madonna,” Dr. Sheilah Snyder, a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s and Madonna explained.

The bouncing boy has learned to walk while connected to a ventilator. He needs it because he was born with underdeveloped lungs.

“He’s got chronic lung disease, second to his prematurity, complicated by multiple medical factors,” Dr. Gordon Still, Q’s pediatric pulmonologist said.

These two doctors have been with Q and his parents since the beginning.

“There’s a whole team of people who are cheering him on every day in therapy and really hoping that he gets to go home and today’s the day,” Dr. Snyder said smiling behind her mask.

A day his parents have anxiously waited for for a long time.

“It’s kind of unreal because for 2 years we’ve had dates where he could possibly come home and then it didn’t work out,” Harris said. “So now it’s kind of like, is this real? Are we gonna go home?”

Even though he’ll finally be under the same roof as his parents, Q has a long road ahead of him filled with appointments and learning to live on a ventilator.

But, his father and namesake is just thankful they have that future.

“He’s been at the hospital for two and a half years, he hasn’t seen anything so being able to, having to teach him everything and show him out that’s going to be an even better feeling,” Marquinn said.

Q and his family will be needing round-the-clock in-home care from a nurse to help with his medical needs on a day-to-day basis.

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