Revolutionary Equipment Donated by Charity in memory of an Angel
Libby Mae’s Little Angels have teamed together with fellow angel parents Jemma and Simon Phelps to donate revolutionary equipment to Birmingham Womens Hospital in memory of their baby boy Joshua.
Joshua’s Solihull based parents Jemma & Simon Phelps stated : When we lost Joshua, we were so heartbroken but determined to celebrate the time we did share with him and also keen to have something positive come out of such a terrible experience. Joshua was a real fighter, so raising money by completing a Triathlon seemed like a challenge he'd be proud of his mummy and daddy completing! Once we'd committed ourselves and entered (into the Warwickshire Sprint Triathlon), the training actually helped provide Simon and I with a focus for the difficult months after he died - nature's therapy of exercise, fresh air and sun on our backs helped give us time to start to heal and also lots of reflective time together to remember and talk about our little soldier.
We'd already committed to the triathlon before we'd heard about Libby Mae's Little Angels, but one of the nurses that looked after Joshua mentioned about the incredible work that they do to support the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Birmingham Women’s Hospital where Joshua spend the majority of his 10 weeks of life. Charlotte and Rich at Libby Mae's Little Angels explained that with their help we would be able to use our fundraising to buy essential medical equipment to help care for babies born prematurely or sick like Joshua and Libby Mae, so we were keen to support them in any way we could. Overall our fundraising totalled £8575.75 which is just incredible - we never imagined we'd raise such a huge amount!
The day itself was great - we had family supporting, we taped photos of Joshua to our bikes to keep us motivated and both crossed the line in a mixture of emotions, with tears in our eyes and a celebratory high-fives to celebrate our pride in 'Team Phelps'!
Various discussion were held between the Charity, Joshuas parents and Birmingham Womens Hospital as to what equipment should be purchased. It was decided that we would buy an Infant View Larygoscope which costs £16k which help Neonatal staff safely introduce breathing apparatus to tiny babies (Intubation).
As with many babies in the neonatal ward, Joshua’s journey had ups and downs. On several occasions when he wasn’t doing so well, he would require breathing support and therefore the staff would have to intubate him; a worrying and stressful time for us as mum and dad and a distressing process for Joshua. We know Joshua would have benefited from this equipment and take some comfort from the the fact that other babies will benefit.
Charlotte from Libby Mae’s Little Angels who founded the charity with her husband Rich when they lost their little girl Libby Mae explained that when ‘The Phelps’ contacted us regarding Joshua we immediately wanted to help them do something special in his memory, helping towards the purchase of such an amazing piece of equipment fills us with pride and also gives us comfort as, as with Joshua it is a piece of equipment that Libby Mae would have benefitted from.
Dr Matt Nash from Birmingham Womens Hospital told us 'The video-laryngoscope is an essential piece of kit that will improve the care and safety of our babies. It will help with teaching junior medical staff not only on our unit, but across the West Midlands, how to intubate safely and effectively by allowing fine adjustment of techniques using the video screen.
With increasing evidence supporting the new method of administering medicine into the lungs of premature babies, this equipment will support the safe administration of this without the standard method of using a large and invasive endotracheal tube.
Occasionally we encounter babies who have airway abnormalities. The video laryngoscope allows clearer views that are easier to obtain compared to standard “direct-view” laryngoscopes. This equipment will help in these tricky airway situations, and it also allows more doctors to be involved and assist, and the procedure can be recorded for future learning.
I am very excited to have this equipment, and it will positively impact patient care and potential save lives.'
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