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| £10,000 gift to unit will give years of benefit |
| Written by Communications Lead |
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The unit wants to purchase a new £19,000 milk pasteurizer in 2009 and a £10,000 donation this week (08-12-08) now looks set to make this possible.
The gift came from Russell and Sharon Peirson-Hagger of Addlestone whose daughter Mia was born with complications at St. Peter’s Hospital on 23 November 2007. They have also made a £10,000 donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital where she was transferred and treated before being returned to St. Peter’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at six days old. Mia was finally well enough to go home on 19 December, 2007, aged four weeks. The family immediately set up the Mia Grace Fund aiming to raise as much as possible for both hospitals in 12 months, intending to make Mia’s “Birthday Gift” to those hospitals on her first birthday.
Said Sharon: “We respect and appreciate what was done for Mia. She has done so very well and we are very grateful and we want to say “Thank you” to everyone involved.
“We could not have raised this amount without a lot of back-up from people and we are thrilled that all their efforts have achieved this huge amount of £20,000. “
Russell and Sharon joined forces with their friends Wendy Jones of Basingstoke and Adam Roberts of Lyne together with Sharon’s parents Neil and Sylvia Turner of Farnborough to set about fundraising. Russell’s Mum, Doreen, of Brighton did her bit becoming a big knitter producing tiny woolly hats and blankets for the NICU babies.
The fundraisers major event was planned and on 3 May 2008 the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley, became the setting for a “Hullabaloo” night, with the venue donated by club owner Bob Potter OBE. An auction of 26 items kindly donated by friends and acquaintances raised £9,000 and a raffle with major prizes donated by Toshiba, Thorpe Park and Luigi and Carlos raised £3,000. A champagne hoopla stall, money from sales of event photos, plus donations from people who could not attend all combined to make the night a big success.
It wasn’t just the big sums raised that touched the hearts of Russell and Sharon. Pupils at Pyrcroft Grange Primary School, Chertsey, where she is a teacher, held a “Name the dog” day this term.
Said Sharon: “It was lovely to go back and see the children and staff and we were thrilled to be able to add a bit more to the collection.”
Receiving the donation on behalf of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Consultant Neonatal Paediatrician Dr Tracy Lawson said: “I am delighted to accept this extremely generous donation. Seeing Mia healthy and growing up is thanks in itself, but raising such an amount is a staggering achievement. We are all extremely grateful for this contribution to our "Early Births Fund", which will go a long way towards the purchase of a new pasteurizer." Baby Mia’s Story
Sharon and Russell Peirson-Hagger’s first child, Leo, was born at St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey on 28 October 2004. All had gone well with his water birth and as Sharon’s second pregnancy was normal there was no need to worry when she was a few days overdue and she went into a very fast labour on 23 November 2008. Meconium was seen in Sharon’s waters when they broke and although Mia cried out loudly when she was delivered she suddenly went limp and couldn’t breathe.
She was rushed to Neonatal Intensive Care where she was diagnosed with Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. While in the womb Mia had breathed in meconioum – the waste product substance that is normally excreted as stools by a baby after its delivery, and not before.
Said Sharon: “As a result of the ventilation she was receiving she developed a hole in her lungs. She was very, very poorly and her heart stopped. Dr Tracy Lawson and the team were fantastic but they knew that Mia needed specialist ECMO treatment and that she would need to be transferred to Great Ormond Street.
“We were at our lowest point. We weren’t sure if she was going to make it. She was put into the special transport incubator that is always ready on stand-by for such emergencies. We were allowed to go in the ambulance with her and the CAT team (children’s acute transport service) as she was zoomed up to Great Ormond Street. Once there the life-support machine ECMO machine gave her a chance to rest and recover. It’s a very complex procedure and she faced risks every day that she was on it. Two nurses were always on duty specifically for Mia with one watching the machinery and computer and the other attending to her needs.
The teams at both hospitals were in constant touch, respecting and appreciating what had been done in both hospitals to save her life. After four days she came off the life-support machine ECMO machine and was placed on a ventilator and at six days old she was brought back to St. Peter’s NICU. A day later Mum and Dad were allowed their first cuddle.
Said Sharon: “To prepare for taking her home, at four weeks, we were taught by the hospital how to look after the tubing and oxygen cylinders. Wires, cables and tubes are trickier than you might think! But the NICU staff were great and we followed their “Rooming-in” system of staying overnight and having total responsibility for her before we took her home to Addlestone.”
Said Sharon: “Mia weighed 6lbs. 9oz when she was born and was really a very healthy baby until she breathed in the meconium. Once she got over that she really picked up and she has done very well. They are all thrilled with her progress and St. Peter’s will keep a close check on her until she is walking and talking and she had her last check-up at Great Ormond Street in November.”
Added Sharon: “When you see the NHS click into action it is amazing. We had faultless care from both hospitals – not just for Mia but for each of us. This is our way of saving “Thank You.”
Foot note:
ECMO stands for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation. This involves inserting two tubes into a baby's circulation system, removing the blood from the baby, then circulating it through a machine that oxygenates the blood, then passing it back into the baby. It is usually done as a last resort when we cannot ventilate a baby adequately and they have to go to one of five centers in the UK that can do this.
Milk Bank: Premature babies, and particularly those born at 23-30 weeks, are delicate so need to be given breast milk as formula milk is too rich for their digestive system. Their mothers may not be well enough to express their own milk so donor milk is used. Parents’ permission is always sought before a baby is given donated milk. Most babies cannot co-ordiante sucking, swallowing and breathing until about 34 weeks. The baby is tube-fed directly into the stomach, either via the nose or mouth.
Following a screening process suitable donors are supplied with sterile containers and instructions on how to store the milk in a home freezer until transported to NICU in special containers where the milk is prepared for pasteurization. The new pasteurizer will allow more bottles to be processed in a shorter space of time.
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 December 2008 13:08 ) |
