After a bone marrow transplant, healing doesn’t end when a child leaves the hospital. For months, their immune system is fragile—every surface, every visitor, every moment carries risk. For families, the question becomes: where can our child recover safely, without being alone?
A Home Built for Healing
Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY) is a trusted home-away-from-home for families navigating life-altering events like childhood cancer treatment and pediatric transplant recovery. Located steps from world-class hospitals—including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)—the House offers 95 guest rooms, communal kitchens, wellness spaces, and supportive programming designed for pediatric families facing some of the most challenging moments of their lives.
Among those rooms are six of the most innovative and impactful spaces at the House: post-transplant suites—specialized, ultra-clean environments designed for children recovering from bone marrow or stem cell transplants. RMH-NY is the only facility in New York City offering post-transplant suites outside a hospital setting. Their purpose is simple but profound: protect immunocompromised children while giving them a home-like environment where families can recover together.
Why Families Needed Something Beyond the Hospital
The Vision Behind the Suites
The development of RMH-NY’s post-transplant suites is rooted in the work of Dr. Richard J. O’Reilly, a globally recognized leader in bone marrow transplantation who dedicated his career to the children that he treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Dr. O’Reilly helped shape many of the modern protocols used today including unrelated donor transplantation, transforming what long-term survival looks like for pediatric cancer.
When MSK built out its “day hospital” model, transplant patients could receive intensive treatment during the day but needed safe, ultra-clean environments at night. Hospital rooms provided sterile conditions, but long-term isolation created emotional strain for children and caregivers alike which could ultimately prove damaging to treatment outcomes. Families needed a place that was medically appropriate and emotionally supportive.
Ronald McDonald House New York could meet that need—if it could build the right kind of room.
Dr. O’Reilly’s Role in Making it All Happen
Dr. O’Reilly strongly advocated for the creation of post-transplant suites for many years. In his own words, he “pushed the board really hard,” and the board embraced his vision. As part of a major expansion in 2018 to provide more space to house more families, RMH-NY added 11 new guest rooms, six of which were post-transplant suites, designed specifically for the unique needs of immunocompromised children recovering outside the hospital.
Designed for Safety, Built for Family
Ultra-Clean, Family-Focused Environments
Post-transplant suites at RMH-NY serve children requiring strict infection control for three to six months after transplant. These suites are environments designed through close collaboration with transplant clinicians. They provide a medically informed bridge between hospital-level safety and the comforts of home.
While many children recovering from transplant must avoid communal spaces until medically cleared, the suites give them room to rest, heal, and maintain a sense of normalcy. Being able to live with their families, instead of remaining isolated in a hospital room, reduces emotional strain and supports overall well-being during a vulnerable stage of pediatric transplant recovery.
The First Post-Transplant Suites of Their Kind in New York City
A Rare and Essential Resource
RMH-NY fills a critical gap that no other nonprofit or medical institution does. So, what makes the experience different for families recovering in post-transplant suites compared to the families staying in the House’s 89 rooms?
All families staying at the House during treatment have access to:
• A large dining area and three meals a day
• Laundry facilities on every floor
• A caregiver-focused Wellness Center
• Child-centered playrooms and program spaces
• Transportation to and from local hospitals
Families in post-transplant suites cannot regularly enjoy all of the same comforts. However, RMH-NY staff have created special ways to bring these services to post-transplant families without them ever needing to walk outside the door. Amenities in the post-transplant suites include:
• A private in-suite kitchen and dedicated laundry
• Expanded living and dining space for family meals and everyday moments.
• In-suite programming from RMH-NY’s children’s enrichment team, bringing creativity, movement, and play directly to recovering children.
• All RMH-NY services and enhancements, delivered in a way that reduces germ exposure and protects recovery.
Every detail of the post-transplant suites reflects RMH-NY’s deep commitment to family-centered care, creating a space where healing happens safely, together, and where every child is supported in being exactly what they deserve to be: a kid first, and a patient second.
A Tale of Two Recoveries
Here is a snapshot of two very different, but equally real recovery journeys for children who have successfully undergone transplant surgery and are now in the hard, hopeful work of healing. Both of these stories are unfolding right now, here in New York City.
Recovery Journey #1:
The Hospital Room
The room wakes before the child does.
A soft beep. A door opening. A nurse checking numbers on a screen before whispering hello. The shades are half-drawn, the light filtered and gray. A parent sits in a chair that has doubled as a bed for weeks, shoes still on, afraid to miss something important.
The child is awake now, too tired to sleep, too sick to play. They watch the ceiling, waiting for the next interruption. Breakfast arrives on a tray they barely touch. There are rules about who can visit. Rules about where they can go. Rules about what they can’t do.
Recovery here is quiet. Necessary. Lifesaving.
But it is lonely.
Outside the door, life continues, school mornings, siblings’ routines, ordinary moments that feel impossibly far away. Inside, time is measured in lab results and medication schedules. The child is healing, but childhood is on hold.
Recovery Journey #2:
The Post-Transplant Suite at Ronald McDonald House New York
This morning begins with sunlight.
It spills through a window onto a real bed. A sibling’s voice drifts in from the next room, asking what’s for breakfast. The child sits up slowly, still fragile, still healing—but brushing their own teeth, choosing a sweatshirt, feeling like themselves again.
A parent pours coffee in a kitchen down the hall. They slept through the night. They are exhausted but standing. Present. Parenting, not just monitoring.
Breakfast happens at a table. There is laughter, quiet, careful, but real. Afterward, the child rests on a couch, wrapped in a blanket from home, while a sibling does homework nearby. The day includes medications and check-ins, yes—but also routines. Normalcy. Dignity.
Recovery here still requires caution. Still requires strength. But it also allows life to return, one ordinary moment at a time.
The Difference
Both children are recovering from transplants. Both desire and are doing everything they can do to get better. But only one is doing it surrounded by family, routine, and the simple reminders of what they’re healing for.
That’s what a post-transplant suite makes possible. Not just survival—but recovery that keeps childhood, family, and hope intact.
Programs That Bring Childhood Into the Room
Because children in these suites often cannot participate in group activities, RMH-NY developed a specialized Post-Transplant Program. Staff create and deliver personalized care packages tailored to each child’s age, interests, and abilities. These packages include arts and crafts, STEM activities, books, sensory toys, and items that spark joy during a long recovery period.
The goal is to help children in isolation feel less alone. Every package is a reminder that childhood doesn’t stop during treatment. It simply adapts.
The Programs team also makes sure post-transplant families never miss out on the magic of a celebrity visit, even when they can’t join the main meet-and-greets in the dining room. Instead, the team goes one step further, setting aside special one-on-one times at the end of each visit for celebrities to connect with post-transplant families in a way that’s safe, thoughtful, and even more unforgettable.
And We Never Forget About The Caregiver
When families are confined to their suites for months at a time, caregiver well-being becomes not optional—but essential. For caregivers, RMH-NY’s Blavatnik Family Foundation Wellness Center continues to provide:
• Meditation and mindfulness classes
• Fitness sessions
• Massage therapy
• Healing music therapy sessions
• Nutrition workshops
Supporting caregivers reinforces the well-being of the entire family, an essential lifeline during prolonged medical journeys when families are often confined to their living space.
What Dr. O’Reilly Sees in the Suites’ Impact
Remarkably Low Infection Rates and Improved Recovery
Dr. O’Reilly describes the House as “spectacular” and highlights that the number of infections among patients staying in the post-transplant suites has been very, very small. From decades of transplant experience, he emphasizes several advantages:
• Shorter hospital stays
• Faster, more aggressive recoveries
• Enhanced emotional stability for families.
These benefits come from the intersection of medically informed design and RMH-NY’s family-centered approach.
Who the Suites Serve
Families From Everywhere
Ronald McDonald House New York welcomes families from all five New York City boroughs, across the United States, and around the world. The six post-transplant suites support children who require long-term protective environments and proximity to top-tier medical care.
The ability to celebrate milestones and maintain routines is transformative for families undergoing lengthy pediatric transplant recovery.
Also, no family is ever turned away for their inability to pay, ensuring access to essential housing regardless of financial circumstances.
A House That Evolves the Medicine
Growing Alongside Breakthroughs in Pediatric Care
Ronald McDonald House New York continually updates its facility as pediatric medicine evolves. Renovations to communal areas—described as “the heart of daily life”—reflect RMH-NY’s commitment to creating spaces where healing can flourish. From expanded kitchens to enhanced program spaces, the House adapts to the needs of today’s pediatric cancer and transplant families.
Dr. O’Reilly summarizes this philosophy: “As medicine moves forward, so does the House.”
As transplant methods grow more sophisticated and outpatient care expands, Ronald McDonald House New York ensures its facilities remain aligned with medical best practices and focused on family well-being.
A Model Rooted in Healing, Community, and Truth
In the quiet months after transplant—when healing is slow, at times invisible, and always fragile, a post-transplant suite gives families something medicine alone cannot: the ability to be together, safely, as life begins again..
