That cold Monday morning last November began as a typical snowy day for a young family— school canceled and plans for outdoor fun. But for the Dingeldein family of Etna Green, Indiana, the day quickly became anything but normal.
Dan Dingeldein, husband to Megan and father to Maddie (9), Faith (7), and Ethan (3), works remotely from home. Taking a mid-morning break, he told the kids to get their gear on for a snowmobile ride. That’s when Faith suddenly started screaming.
“Everything hurts,” she cried. “It hurts all over.”
What Dan and Megan didn’t yet know was that Faith had suffered a rupture in her brain from an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), an abnormal tangle of blood vessels. The rupture triggered terrifying symptoms for Faith: uncontrollable vomiting, extreme pain, drooling, loss of speech, and eventually unconsciousness.
Megan recalls the moment she realized they were in the middle of a crisis that would change all of their lives. “Dan picked her up immediately and said, ‘We need to get to the hospital now.’”
They dropped off Maddie and Ethan at their grandparents’ house and then rushed Faith to the local emergency room. After witnessing such a traumatic event, big sister Maddie was left to wonder what would happen next. “It felt really terrifying,” she remembers. “I got really scared like will I ever see my sister again? And so I just started crying in the car. It was just so scary.”
When Faith arrived at the local hospital, an ER physician quickly recognized that she needed specialized care. The doctors told Dan and Megan, “We need to get you to Riley Hospital, but she’ll probably die if she goes in an ambulance. So we need to get a helicopter.”
Twenty minutes later, Dan and Faith were airborne on their way to Indianapolis while Megan and her mother followed by car. Faith was placed in a medically-induced coma while the medical team at Riley Hospital worked to understand her brain injury. The next few days were a whirlwind of prayer and uncertainty as Dan and Megan took turns sleeping at Riley and driving back and forth from their home in northern Indiana to see Maddie and Ethan.
Their prayers were answered as Faith’s condition began to stabilize. But as the days went on, Megan began searching to find a way for her family to be together. While walking the hospital halls, she mentioned her situation to a staff member. “She told me, ‘There’s this place called Fair Haven and they’re absolutely amazing.’”
“Amanda [from Fair Haven] reached out and she asked, ‘What are your needs?’ And I told her, our biggest thing is that Daniel works from home, I homeschool, our family is together 24-7. So for us not to be together is really hard. It would be a blessing if we could have a place where all of us could be together and where the kids could feel like they were in a home.”
The very next day, the family checked in at Nancy’s Place, a Fair Haven single-family home designed specifically for families navigating medical crises. Dan, Megan, Maddie, Ethan, and even a few grandparents stayed there for eight nights.
“It was nine days in [to Faith’s hospital stay] that we were able to have our first meal together,” Dan and Megan reminisce together. “Fair Haven was literally a fair haven. It allowed us some normalcy in a storm.”
“And it allowed Maddie and Ethan to be a part of this whole story that God’s doing…Without Fair Haven, they would [have been] at home.”
Faith’s recovery, supported by the prayers of her family and their faith community, progressed much faster than even the most optimistic of doctors predicted. Initial estimates were that she would need 4-6 weeks to recover. But by day six she was moving through the hospital halls with assistance. On day fifteen she was out of the ICU. On day eighteen she walked out of the hospital on her own. It was nothing short of a miracle.
“We had one doctor come to us and he was like, where your daughter is at is further than a lot of children will ever be,” Daniel recalls.
When the entire family returned to Fair Haven in January for Faith’s follow-up appointments at Riley, it was a much different experience for Maddie. “I felt so much better that it could be a family trip. It feels better to be together.”
“Fair Haven was able to provide a space where I could be a shelter for my kids and make sure that they’re safe and okay,” Megan and Dan shared. ”It’s been so encouraging and it’s made this journey really joyful. When you have other fellow believers coming alongside you and loving you well, it fills your spirit and it encourages you as a believer to continue to walk in that joy.”
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