“Our first miracle was that my dad survived,” McGee said. “But he was in a coma and on life support.”
Doctors advised that even if her father managed to come out of the coma, he would be “essentially a vegetable,” and there was very little hope of recovery.
“I had been working in the organic food industry for many years,” said McGee, who owned a restaurant in Dayton at the time. “I had many questions for my dad’s doctors that they couldn’t answer.”
McGee’s father was moved from hospital to rehab centers and, like most comatose patients, had a feeding tube in place. And she didn’t question his feeding formula until she picked up and read the label.
“I noticed the first few ingredients (in the feeding tube formula) were sugar and oils and other things I would normally never give my father,” McGee said. “I set out to find a healthy feeding tube formula.”
McGee asked doctors, dietitians and other professionals if a healthier version existed but she came up empty handed. So she decided to come up with a recipe herself.
McGee knew she had to come up with a recipe for the formula that would support all the processes of the body. The process was complex as healthier foods are generally lower in calories and fat. Her research led to Paul Pitchford, who had written a book called “Healing with Whole Foods.”
“I’ve always been a huge proponent of healthy food,” McGee said. “Finding this book was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me.”
After a phone consultation with Pitchford, McGee felt equipped to put together a healthy feeding tube formula that included grains, legumes, fresh vegetables and some healthy herbs and supplements. She got approval to begin giving her father the formula and after the first ten days, he was improving.
“Six weeks after starting the formula, my dad’s health was amazing,” McGee said. “He was actually sitting up in a wheelchair and was more alert.”
McGee’s family began to call her formula, “Liquid Hope,” and she continued to make it for her father for the next three years until he passed away.
“I was getting a lot of requests from other families,” McGee said. “I realized there was a huge need for a healthier feeding tube formula.”
McGee wanted to commercialize her product, but large scale manufacturing brought with it many challenges, especially developing a preservative free recipe that had a stable shelf life. She worked with food scientists and registered dietitians during this process.
Then in 2013, McGee’s company, Nutritional Medicinals, LLC began marketing “Liquid Hope.” The first few runs sold out immediately.
“We had no idea there were so many infants and children on feeding tubes,” McGee said. “So we launched a pediatric formula this year — ‘Nourish.’”
After just three years, McGee found herself CEO of a multimillion dollar company whose growth could mostly be attributed to social media and word of mouth.
Stephanie Miller’s son Logan was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in early 2015. Miller said that Logan, at the age of 4, went from 38 to 29 pounds very quickly and he was given a feeding tube.
“The nutritionist at our local hospital recommended we feed him a popular formula,” Miller said. “I looked at the ingredients and I told her I would not be giving sugar and chemicals to my son while he was fighting cancer.”
Like McGee, Miller found there were no healthier alternatives so she started researching and found Nutritional Medicinals and Liquid Hope.
“I loved Robin’s story and I knew all the love she felt for her daddy was the same love I felt for my son,” Miller said. “And that love was in these bags of formula.”
After receiving the green light from Logan’s doctor, Miller ordered the pediatric formula.
“Doctors and nurses were amazed by how great Logan looked after treatments,” Miller said. “We are now at our third hospital and Logan is in remission. He continues to astound all the doctors he meets.”
Today McGee and her husband, Brian, who is COO of the company, work together with medical professionals and a medical advisory board. And the company will soon be opening an office in Middlebury, Vermont, which is close to home for the core medical team.
“People don’t think about (feeding tube formulas) until they need it so it’s not an easy sell,” McGee said. “But this is something that has truly made a difference for many patients.”
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