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On 7th September 2009, aged just 6 weeks, our baby daughter Jeannie was admitted to the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton where she was diagnosed with Whooping Cough. As her condition worsened she was transferred to the Evelina Children's Hospital in London where she underwent two blood tranfusions. In a final attempt to save her life she was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital and placed on an ECMO machine that essentially did the work of her heart and lungs for her. She remained on the ECMO machine for 21 days but the damage that Whooping Cough had caused proved just too much for her and on 2nd October 2009 our beautiful little Jeannie died peacefully in our arms.
We have created this page for two reasons. Mainly as a way of saying 'thank you' to Great Ormond Street Hospital for all that they did for Jeannie and for us. They never gave up hope that Jeannie could get better, even though she was really battling against the odds. They also gave us the support we needed to get through such a hideous time.
We also wanted to raise awareness of the disastrous consequences of Whooping Cough in young babies. Like us, you probably thought that Whooping Cough was something that only characters in Dickens books died of? This is sadly not the case. Whooping Cough is a preventable disease but cases of it are on the increase. Jeannie only had two more weeks to go before she could have been inoculated against it at 8 weeks old. Inoculations exist for a reason. If you, or anyone you know, ever doubted the need to protect children against Whooping Cough or any of the other preventable diseases on the inoculations list, then we ask you to spare a thought for Jeannie, us and our family and friends for whom the consequences of Whooping Cough have been so completely devastating.
Matt will be running a series of races in order to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, starting with the Stubbington Green 10K run on January 10th 2010. Jeannie was fortunate to be put one of the handful of ECMO machines available in the UK. Not only does this machine cost £50,000 to buy but it also requires 2 highly skilled nurses to run it 24hrs a day. All money would be gratefully received as it will allow GOSH to buy more equipment, increase staffing levels and generally carry on their fantastic work and support other families going through similar experiences. So please dig deep and donate now.
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Thank you for your support
Matt & Emma
