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Hello and welcome to our fund raising page, On the 19th of March 2019 my partner Chelsea and I welcomed our daughter Zara Rose Grasham into the world but it didn’t quite go as we had imagined it would. We spent two weeks at Stoke university hospital ending her care at the Telford NICU. The care Zara received in all hospitals that she attended over those weeks is the reason she is still alive today and we will never be able to thank them enough. I have decided to raise money for the Neonatal intensive care unit at Stoke University hospital but more specifically for a certain item of equipment that they need which was a massive part of Zara’s care and recovery.

Zara’s story

Chelsea had an entirely low risk pregnancy, completely
normal and healthy. On 19th of March Chelsea was 10 days over due but on the edge of what they call active labour so our midwife decided to break her waters to see if it helped things along. On breaking the waters she discovered Zara had released her bowels inside the waters which can be dangerous as a babies first poo’s are thick and sticky like tar and they can be inhaled and swallowed causing infections and breathing difficulties. Chelsea was blue lighted straight away to the Princess Royal at Telford and within the hour Zara was born naturally, Chelsea was amazing. It became instantly apparent that Zara could not clear her lungs and that she had inhaled large volumes of meconium or poo to keep it non medical. From here on in it was a battle to keep her alive, to inflate her lungs and force oxygen into them they had to put in pressures which burst her lungs, unfortunately she went without oxygen for some time and suffered a seizure. At this time the doctors decided to give her a cooling treatment which reduces body temperature and blood flow to protect the brain from inflammation and further damage – if there was any. Once she was ‘stable’ they moved her at 2am 20th march to the level 3 NICU at Stoke university hospital which is for babies requiring the highest level of care. During her first few hours of being there she suffered an ‘episode’ in which her body decided to revert back to breathing like she would have with the placenta because of the damage inflicted in her lungs, the blood vessels in the lungs constrict and lock shut and it suffocated her – the medical term for this is PPHN. Zara was already sedated on morphine and they paralysed her to prevent her doing harm to herself and damaging the medical equipment keeping her stable. They had to give her a cocktail of drugs to raise her blood pressure to try and keep her lungs open and she was put on a ventilator to take over her breathing. She remained on this level of treatment for around a week being constantly monitored in an incubator without physical contact as she was too unstable. After 3 days of being cooled they started to increase her temperature back to normal and monitored her brain activity for seizures and to adjust as require- this is the piece of equipment they need another of and that we are raising money for, it showed the doctors how to treat her in relation to her brain during the whole treatment as she was sedated and paralysed.

What are we raising money for?

CFM Olympic brainz monitor – costs £15,000. Currently they
have one up to date monitor serving their unit and require two. Should we exceed the amount needed we will simply buy more things on their list of needs. Every single penny raised is for the unit, we are funding our three peaks walk ourselves!

What are we doing?

Welsh three peaks within 24 hours. Snowdon/Cader idris/Pen y Fan. On the 12^th of July at 11am we will climb Snowdon and then travel to Cader Idris and climb that after, We will stay the night in a hostel by Pen y fan and then climb the mountain in the morning, returning to the base by 11am. I have a few people raising money and doing the walk, we will travel by mini bus which I will pay for and accommodation will be covered by ourselves. None of the fund will be used to do the challenge.

Should donating via justgiving put you off you can send me the donation via bank transfer and I will put it through the page myself - but it is secure and we qualify for gift aid so hopefully it wont bother you! 

To finish off this page I would like to say that I hope you never have to use the services we did but should you need them just know that what these people and modern medicine can do is mind blowing and your baby is in the safest of hands.

Thank you for reading
and hopefully donating