Georgia
Caring for Kids Program
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Thanks to funds raised from community groups like Variety, the children’s charity (NSW), young patients who are treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick have access to the best lifesaving equipment possible. In the past financial year, Variety has generously donated several vital pieces of equipment and software to ICU, including:
- two portable ventilators, which allow patients who require long-term breathing support to be safely ventilated in a general hospital ward or at home under the supervision of the ICU team.
- a software upgrade, which generates a detailed analysis of a patient’s condition so that ICU staff can quickly respond in an emergency situation.
- 21 high-tech lights, which provide high intensity illumination above each ICU bed to aid ICU staff in carrying out precise procedures during delicate surgery.
- a transport monitor, so that the ICU team can continue to monitor and record the vital signs of patients, even when they are transferred to other areas within the Hospital such as operating theatres or the emergency department.
- flow sensor upgrade for two ventilators, so that ventilators can deliver optimal breaths to the smallest premature infants via a highly sensitive trigger device.
For children like Georgia, Variety’s support is critical. Georgia spent five days being treated in ICU following a kidney transplant in August 2009, where she was surrounded by so many machines that were keeping her alive that she nicknamed her bed the ‘Christmas tree’. The lucky recipient of a kidney from her loving father, Georgia’s body fought day in and day out to accept the kidney.
Georgia’s mum Louisa said, “She had kidney failure from birth so we knew that she would have to have a transplant at some stage, but we were so relieved when we found out that my husband Kevin could be a potential kidney donor. Even so, it was difficult to see Georgia on so much medication in the ICU isolation room. We’re so thankful for the wonderful ICU staff and the specialised equipment that has meant Georgia is doing really well just over one year after the transplant”.
Georgia is now eight years old, back at school and full of energy, thanks to much-needed community support from Variety. Without this support, the Hospital could not offer such world-class award-winning care to its precious young patients.