It all started with a pair of roller skates.

Charlotte Randall, then 18, fell while roller skating and hurt her tailbone. When it wouldn’t stop hurting, she visited a physician assistant in Bullhead City, AZ. The PA said her tailbone would heal in time, but, “Oh – you have two heart murmurs.” The PA was concerned, especially when she realized that Charlotte’s resting heart rate was nearly 60% higher than normal.

A few doctors later, she was diagnosed with ‘inappropriate sinus tachycardia,’ (aka an abnormally fast heartbeat.) Medications weren’t working so eventually her family made the six-hour drive to Tucson to see Dr. Peter Ott, Cardiac Electrophysiologist at Banner University Medical Center. Dt. Ott performed a few procedures to try to regulate her heartbeat. Then he installed a pacemaker.

That’s when Charlotte and her family found the Ronald McDonald House.

“This is an amazing place to stay,” Charlotte said. “I rave about it to all the nurses at the hospital.”

Until August, things were going well. Then Charlotte developed sepsis, which caused endocarditis (an infection of the inner lining of the heart chambers and valves.) Three weeks in the hospital has turned into a lengthy stay in Tucson. Charlotte and her mom, Merlynn, have been guests of the Ronald McDonald House for 175 nights.

“It’s our sanctuary,” Merlynn said. “We get to just chill and relax here and meet other parents – some who have things worse than we do. And it would have been very expensive to try to stay in a hotel for all these months.”

Now this 22-year-old is in cardiac rehab – the youngest patient in the program by several decades. She is one-third of the way through her 36 sessions and hopes that then she can return home and think about starting community college. Not surprisingly, she wants to study science.