Ollie's life-saving surgery prompts fundraising campaign

When your new-born baby requires major heart surgery a day after being born, to live, it puts a lot of things into perspective, writes Brian Byrne. Especially about the hospital and staff who have to do such critical work.

Which is why Noel and Katrina O'Connell of Calverstown are now taking on the challenge of helping Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children at Crumlin to raise funds for a new childrens cancer ward, and a new cardiac critical facility.

For the two, €8m needs to be raised. Until it is, children may live because because of the magnificent work which the staff at Crumlin do in facilities that haven't been brought up to date since the 1960s. Others will probably die.

"The cruel thing about it is that a fraction of the €40m or so that has been spent so far on professional fees relating to the new National Childrens Hospital would have already had these facilities in place at Crumlin," says Noel.

"Crumlin is archaic, the cancer ward in particular. In the cardiac unit the cubicles are tiny, and mothers who want to stay with their sick children often sleep on the floor. If there's an emergency, a locker has to be removed to get the defib unit in. And all the time, other mothers nursing their children are looking in through glass walls at this going on."

Noel and Katrina knew at around 21 weeks that their little unborn boy was going to be in trouble. A scan had showed up the heart defect, and subsequently they learned that little Ollie would also have Down's Syndrome.

"The Down's wasn't the issue for us, we just wanted to know if Ollie might live after he was born," Noel remembers. "When Orla Franklin, the cardiac specialist, looked at the situation, she said she would be able to operate, and the chances were 95 percent positive."

And so, on March 21, little newborn Ollie had the first of what will be a series of heart operations, and came through flying. Whatever his future issues might be, he is currently a little bundle of joy to his parents and three older brothers.

The experience has triggered the O'Connells into planning 'a bucket of fundraisers' over the coming months, to do their bit for the campaign being run by Our Lady's Medical & Research Foundation to raise the money for the much-needed better facilities. The campaign's slogan is 'Sick Children are Out of Time', and the hospital has planning permission and designs for the new facilities.

The campaign is adamant that the children can't wait for the toing and froing of the proposed new NCH to be sorted out. "Despite any intentions of the Government and the Hospital Planning Committee in relation to the new paediatric hospital, delays seem to be inevitable," says Sarah Benson of the CMRF. "We cannot be and are not ambivalent to the impact delay has for our sick children. The demands of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin are ever increasing. We are committed to raising a cumulative €8m for the hospital."

For Noel O'Connell and Katrina, the big thing is making people aware of the situation as it is, because there's a danger that the bigger saga of the NCH draws all the attention.

Awareness is what Orla Franklin is about too. Physically small, Noel describes her as 'a blaze of energy' who came to Crumlin from Great Ormonde Street Hospital in London on the promise of world-class facilities. "That was five years ago, and she still hasn't got what was promised."

Dr Franklin herself matches her hours in theatre with doing the rounds of radio and TV shows and anywhere else she can get the ear of the public to Crumlin's needs.

"We need to improve our accommodation faclities to meet the care needs of these vulnerable children," she says. "We have been overcome by the generosity of patients and parents who are fully supportive of this venture."

At a few weeks old, little Ollie O'Connell is quite oblivious of all this. But some day his parents hope they'll be able to tell him how he helped even a little bit to achieve what mites like him require to have there when they need it.

This article was first published on the Kilcullen page of The Kildare Nationalist.