"My son's life was saved there and we must support it"
A Hessle mum is urging people to get behind a new campaign to fund an additional theatre at Yorkshire's only children's heart surgery unit.
A Hessle mum whose son was saved by doctors at Yorkshire's only children's heart surgery unit is backing a campaign to fund a new state-of-the-art theatre.
Justine Coopland's three-year-old son, Harrison, had major heart surgery at the centre at Leeds General Infirmary last December.
10,000 babies and children - including from Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire - are treated there each year.
A new fundraising drive to help raise the ÂŁ500,000 which is needed to help build a new treatment facility has today been launched.
ÂŁ1.25m has already been committed to the project.
Justine says the centre has been a lifeline for her young son and told Viking:
"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 which is behind the project, 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.”