Jessie Janecke was 12 weeks into her third pregnancy when she started hemorrhaging. Doctors weren’t sure whether she or her unborn daughter Giana would survive. It all started the day before her birthday in January 2016. She traveled from Butte to Missoula for her regularly scheduled checkup and figured it would be no big deal – she’d even made plans to spend the day with her family after the appointment. 

That is until doctors told her she had a serious condition called placenta accreta where the placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall, resulting in severe blood loss during delivery. If she were able to carry the baby to term; she’d be required to have a C-section delivery and a hysterectomy to follow.

But that was just the beginning. Because of the precarious nature of her condition, Jessie couldn’t stray more than a few miles from Community Medical Center. If she went off site and something happened, Janecke would only have a few minutes to get to the hospital for immediate medical attention. It was a tough blow for the young mother of two with family life and a career to balance.

Doctors suggested the family get a room at the Ronald McDonald House Missoula. “We collectively stayed in the Ronald McDonald Houses for 14 weeks — 101 days, I think my husband counted,” she said. “I worked for a small pharmacy, a mom and pop pharmacy, I didn’t have maternity leave, I didn’t have the resources to have the long-term disability. For us it was one less thing we had to worry about.”

The Ronald McDonald House didn’t just alleviate financial woes for the Janeckes, it became a second home. Her family had a place to stay when they came to visit on weekends and the other residents of the House came together to support each other. She shared a special bond with one housemate in particular — fellow Butte resident Beth Salusso.

Salusso was battling placenta previa, resulting in a massive hemorrhage that caused her to be life-flighted to Missoula for treatment. Although Janecke and Salusso knew of each other prior to their respective stays at Ronald McDonald House, it was under that roof where their friendship really blossomed.

“It was such a scary time in our lives, but to have someone there that you knew and that was going through the same thing, that was pretty awesome,” Janecke said. “It just helped, it helped a lot.” Together, the Janeckes and Salussos made the best out of a stressful period. They threw parties for the Super Bowl and for Valentine’s Day and hosted family dinners together regularly.

When Janecke was transported to Billings for surgery the day after Salusso gave birth, they joked that it was time for her to move on since Salusso would be leaving shortly too. “It sounds so funny because no one ever wants that diagnosis…but looking back on it, there was so much good that came out of it,” Janecke said. “We made so many relationships and so many bonds, I think it changed our whole outlook on life. You take things for granted, but everything can change in a minute. We got lucky, we had the best outcome we could have and not everybody gets that.”

After Janecke was flown to Billings, she was moved one last time to Salt Lake City where a team of surgeons tackled her complex surgery. Both she and baby Giana survived the procedure.

As for Salusso, her newborn son Sawyer spent a few days in the NICU for breathing difficulties but was soon released.

“We see them all the time now,” Janecke said of the Salussos. “Our little ones are like six weeks apart. They’ll go to school together. “We say we’re going to arrange their marriage,” she added, laughing, “They don’t know that yet.”