Oceana's Richard Jackson presenting the cheque to PICU staff and ex patients Sam

Back in December Oceana Cardiff nominated the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity to receive a grant from the Echo Trust in connection with Luminar and Atmosphere Bars & Clubs who support children’s medical projects around the UK. £4,975 has now been donated to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity to fund equipment for the new critical care unit in Phase Two of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales.

The money will purchase a syringe pump and a volumetric pump, Fiona Thomas, Sister on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the hospital told of how important these pumps are; “The are vital pieces of equipment in our department they allow us to give medicines and necessary fluids to critically ill children so it is essential to the work that we do here. Every bed has a number of the pumps, on average I’d say that every child that comes in needs at least 3 or 4 pumps running at one time, some of the really sick children can have up to 10 to 12 pumps, so it is equipment that is essential. It is very important that money is raised for these pumps.”

In April, Richard Jackson, General Manager of Oceana Cardiff, came to visit the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales to present the cheque to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity. Richard Jackson said; “We picked the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity at Oceana in December and it was the support of all that go to our venue that enabled us to raise such an amount of money. £4975 was raised, justed in Cardiff and everything raised in Cardiff went to a charity based in Cardiff, which I am very pleased about.”

There to receive the cheque was Mary Glover, Senior Nurse on PICU; Jenny Brown, Staff Nurse PICU; Fiona Thomas, Sister PICU and Holly, Billy and Sam Davies. Sam, now 22months, was admitted to the PICU when he was just a few hours old as he began to turn blue. He remained in the PICU for five days, but has since made a full recovery. Mum Holly said; “He is absolutely fine now, fit and healthy and doing great. It was a total shock, you go on auto pilot, there were days that we thought the worst for him, tubes everywhere it was probably the most terrifying time of my life it was horrendous but the staff were incredible the were loving and gentle and nothing was too much trouble. It’s invaluable! Pumps like this are vital, and to know that he was safe place with the right equipment kept us strong and saved his life!”

£1.2million needs to be raised for equipment for the critical care unit, to provide first class treatment to the sickest children in Wales. The generous donation from the Echo Trust is so important for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Charity to reach this target.