Mary’s Fund
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This story is about lovely Mary, who in the space of one weekend, went from being a happy, healthy, energetic just turned-3 year old to almost dying and having to be put into an induced coma and put on life support in PICU at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK.
So dramatic was Mary’s debilitation that the staff didn’t think she would survive during the transfer from Colchester to Cambridge even though 48 hours previously she only had a cough and a fever. The cause? A usually relatively mild, recoverable Streptococcus A infection which turned into septic shock. 3 viruses were also found in her body.
Mary immediately had to have nearly 10 intravenous drugs/fluids/blood products to fight the infection, stabilise her blood pressure and keep her alive with two nurses working non-stop for 48 hours. Over 600ml of infected fluid was removed from her lungs with a lung drain and physiotherapy. She has suffered the equivalent of frost-bite to her fingers and toes and will lose part of every finger on her left hand due to lack of blood supply to her extremities.
Two weeks after her admission to intensive care Mary has fought with all her little might and she is off life support and sedation, but she has suffered significant brain damage. The full extent at the moment is unknown but the staff have now ruled out a full recovery. Currently Mary’s body is completely floppy in part due to the infection and it could take six weeks for this to change and show a clearer prognosis.
Since Mary is now out of intensive care, her doting parents, Sarah and Jonathan, may have to move out of the fantastic charity-funded on-site facilities that have enabled them to be by Mary’s side every step of this horrendous journey so far.
The only on-site option is accommodation at a cost of £55 per night, which is often fully booked. And local B&bBs at £100 per night. As a single parent Sarah still has to single-handedly run her home in Colchester. Mary could be in hospital for months. This aside, who knows what specialist rehabilitation and re-enablement therapy/equipment Mary will need in the future.
Please give whatever you can, to help Sarah and Mary’s dad Jonathan, stay by Mary’s side while she is in hospital and anything left over can help towards Mary’s future.
If you are not able to donate money then we would really appreciate if you could donate blood to the National Blood Bank Service as Mary has benefited from this whilst she has been in hospital. We are keeping a running total of how much blood has been donated in Mary’s name.
Friends have set up a web site http://marysfund.weebly.com/ and
Donations can be made to https://paypal.me/marysfund
Thank you.
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