Mum backs campaign to fund heart surgery theatre in Leeds
An inspiring new campaign is being launched to help generate the vital funds needed to build a revolutionary children’s heart theatre at the Leeds General Infirmary.
An inspiring new campaign is being launched to help generate the vital funds needed to build a revolutionary children’s heart theatre at the Leeds General Infirmary.
The Keeping the Beat campaign, created by Leeds charity, Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, aims to raise £500,000 over the next two years. The charity has already committed £1.25 million to the project and now the public’s support is needed to ensure it becomes a reality.
The new theatre is being created in response to new NHS standards which are being implemented by centres across the country and Leeds’s desire to stay at the forefront of cardiac treatment. The Leeds Congenital Heart Unit is the fourth busiest in the country, with at least 10,000 babies and children from Yorkshire, Humber and North Lincolnshire passing through it every year, with around 400 of these patients having open heart surgery, and a further 450 children undergoing interventional procedures such as pacemakers and catheters.
As well as open heart surgery, the children’s heart theatre will be used for delivering all minimally invasive heart procedures by cardiac catheter on babies and children with congenital heart disease.
For patients, the benefits of having such a theatre include faster recovery times, shorter hospital waiting times and less post-operative pain, while it will also enable surgeons and cardiologists to undertake combined procedures and reduce the need for return surgery. Importantly, it will also provide clinicians with a facility which enables research into new treatments.
Justine Coopland's three-year-old son, Harrison, had major heart surgery at the centre at Leeds General Infirmary last December.
"His heart would have failed in a year if he hadn't have had the operation because his heart was enlarging on one side so they have saved his life. We will have to continue going down there and he will have to have another operation there in the future but we don't know when yet.
"It was a trying time because his operation was scheduled for October but then it was cancelled and we were put on a waiting list because it is a very busy hospital and the main for the North. At the time, they also had quite a few babies in intensive care and they needed a bed for intensive for Harrison so I think another theatre would be good.
"I'll always be very grateful to doctors there, he is with them for life and we will see them a lot over the nect few years but I don't mind aslong as he is happy and he is here. It is a real eye-opener and until you experience something like that for yourself and you see babies that are born and then whisked straight off for surgery and some parents don't even get to hold them.
"When Harrison came out of high dependency and went on to the normal ward we felt quite guilty because we were leaving families behind that were going to stay there for weeks. There was a three-week old baby that had been in there since birth and had three operations, one a week, and you don't realise what goes on in there until you need it yourself."
Sharon Coyle, CEO of Children’s Heart Surgery Fund said: “There’s no doubt that Leeds currently boasts one of the best heart units anywhere in the UK, with patients travelling not just from within Yorkshire but also from outside the region to take advantage of the pioneering surgery and care it provides.
“Over the next two years, Children’s Heart Surgery Fund’s focus is to support the new standards created by NHS England, with the children’s heart theatre being the biggest and most expensive standard amongst the 200 set out by the new review.
“By supporting our appeal and donating, the public will help to ensure that Leeds remains at the fore front of specialist cardiac surgical facilities and continues to provide excellent care to all the babies and children for generations to come.”
To get involved and support this appeal donate online at chsf.org.uk, or text BEAT02 £10 to 70070. People are also encouraged to set up their own fundraising event or challenge. More information about the campaign and latest updates on how it is progressing can be found at chsf.org.uk or via the charity’s Facebook page or through its Twitter feed @CHSurgeryFund. People can tweet their support using #Keepingthebeat.