At the cheque presentation at the Royal
Hospital for Sick Children Paediatric Intensive
Care Unit were Hannah Lusty, mother Jenny,
Annette Blakely, two of the nursing staff and
Heather Lusty. The total raised was �1500.The
Blakely and Lusty families would like to thank
all who bought ballots or gave a donation.
A LISBURN woman has presented a cheque to
staff at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children who helped care
for her new-born grand-daughter after she was born with a
serious bowel condition,
To celebrate Hannah Lusty's first birthday on
May 16, grandmother Annette Blakely handed over a cheque for
�1,500 to medical staff from the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Annette, from Mooreland Drive, helped run a
charity night at Derriaghy Cricket Club to raise the cash.
Hannah was born suffering from gastriothesis,
a condition in which the bowel is formed outside the body, and
she underwent three operations - the first when she was just
four hours old.
The tot spent three gruelling months
recovering in hospital with two-and-a-half weeks spent in the
intensive care unit.
The condition was first detected when
Hannah's mum Jenny was just 16 weeks pregnant. An abnormality
was found and after a second indepth scan it was revealed the
unborn child would have a severe but not life-threatening
condition.
Ironically Annette had already read about the
condition in a magazine so knew a little about it.
Monitored
Throughout the rest of her pregnancy Jenny
was monitored and tested and medical staff explained that as
soon as her baby was born she would have to undergo an operation
to place the bowel back into her tiny body. Jenny was told
exactly what would happen and was shown around the Infant
Surgical Unit where her new-born would be recovering.
"The medical staff were great to Jenny. She
was never kept in the dark and everything was explained to her
about the procedure so nothing that happened would come as a
shock," said Annette.
At 36 weeks - on May 16, 2006 - Hannah was
born. It was feared her bowel would rupture if Jenny went full
term and she was born by caesarean section
Hannah was taken away and at just four hours
old went into surgery. After a week a further operation was
carried out, and a third followed.
Little Hannah spent three and a half months
in the hospital before she was finally allowed home.
A year on and Hannah's family still felt
indebted to the staff who cared for her and wanted to do
something to raise money for the hospital.
Her grandmother said: "We are really proud of
Hannah and how she coped with everything. The experience showed
us the amount of work that goes on at the hospital and we saw
how attentive the staff are. I don't think that people realise,
until something like this happens, what it is really like.
"Hannah is just a perfect wee girl. She is
quite small for her age and gained weight slowly but is fine
now. We have been told that she will not have any problems later
in life.
"We wanted to give something back to the staff
who cared for her. We are forever grateful"
Annette also thanked everyone for supporting
the charity night including the representative of Virgin Vie.
Of the �1,500 raised �1,000 went to the
paediatric unit and the rest towards the parents room at the neo
natal unit.
Ulster Star
08/06/2007
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