Korbin ‘just had a big heart’; dad raises funds to buy game systems for Children’s Hospital

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This article was published 11/01/2023 (1362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When his son was hospitalized for weeks at a time, Joey Halldorsson brought his video-game console from home, bought a TV and set everything up to give Korbin a virtual escape.

Losing himself in PlayStation wrestling matches for hours on end distracted Korbin from medical problems stemming from his muscular dystrophy and gave him something to look forward to, his dad says, but he wanted all of the other kids to be able to play video games in their hospital rooms.

“He just didn’t accept it. He was like, why don’t all the kids have it, Dad?”

Halldorsson said he told his son, “One day, we’ll try. We’ll try and make a difference for the other kids in here, too. And he was just one of those kids that, I don’t know… just had a big heart. He was a very, very good kid.”

Korbin (Halldorsson) Orvis died Oct. 27, 2021 after a stay in the intensive-care unit. He was 17 years old. In his memory, his father has set up a fundraiser to supply Children’s Hospital with stand-alone video game systems on wheeled carts. Korbin’s Wish fundraiser has already raised more than $3,400 since it began collecting online donations Monday.

Halldorsson purchased a Playstation 5, a TV and a cart to build a prototype gaming system he delivered to the hospital on Dec. 28. He planned to build more on his own and with help from his company, AAA Electric, to donate to the hospital, but has since seen an outpouring of public interest in the cause. The donation campaign is running until Feb. 1, when Halldorsson plans to put in his order for all of the supplies.

“I’m in a position in my life where it’s something I need to do,” Halldorsson said. Korbin was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at birth, and as he got older, had mobility only in his arms. Gaming and talking over headsets to his peers helped him, his father said.

“I just knew how important it was to him, and I know it’s important to other kids out there.”

Halldorsson’s goal is to provide systems for Children’s, and then branch out to other hospitals and northern nursing stations in the province where kids wait to be transferred to larger facilities.

“Those waits and downtimes, that’s hard on those kids, when they’re thinking about it and they’re scared,” he said.

“But if they can focus on a game — playing Star Wars, Lego, hockey or football, whatever it is just to get them out of their thoughts, thinking about why they’re there. To me, that’s the answer.”

His fundraiser is registered with the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba. The hospital’s child-life department is determining whether the prototype is suitable for in-hospital use, and, if so, how many of them could be used in the hospital, foundation marketing and communications manager Kathryn McBurney said.

There is an existing video-game console in the hospital’s playroom, but access to common spaces is limited during certain outbreaks, including COVID-19 and RSV, and some patients need to remain in their rooms. Part of the foundation’s ongoing fundraising goes to updating games, recreation activities and other children’s play programs, in addition to funding necessary medical equipment and research.

“Supporting child life is super-important, so we’re very, very grateful to the community members who keep coming up with ways to support the kids while they’re in hospital,” McBurney said.

More information on Korbin’s Wish is on Facebook at http://wfp.to/SxK.

The Children’s Hospital Foundation also posts its ongoing needs for donations at http://wfp.to/Sxb.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com