Showcase Saturday – Episode #1
We are delighted to start a new feature here on our new website – Showcase Saturdays! We borrowed the idea from our lovely friend at Neoangels who run their Showcase Sundays… the idea being we take the time to share the stories of some of the families Team Evie has helped. We thought the nicest way to do this was to ask families to tell their story in their own words…
So, to start us off for episode #1 of Showcase Saturdays is the lovely Carter family. The Carters got in touch a few moths ago and as part of their email to us to say thank you they wrote us a poem titled ‘Always Moving Forward’, we have included the poem at the end of their story…but for now it is over to Adam, Li-Am and Mali:
On the 4th January 2017 aged 3 weeks old, Mali had a cardiac arrest in the car park of the RVI hospital. She had contracted a virus that caused swelling in the brainstem, known as Brainstem Encephalitis. This part of the brain controls breathing, and the damage led to her needing long term ventilation in the form of a tracheostomy and ventilator. She spent the first few months battling for life, 7 months in PICU and a total of 9 months in hospital.
Over the time we spent we spent in hospital we received an enormous amount of support from friends and family, but also from charities like Team Evie that are now very close to our hearts.
Our first week in the PICU was one of the hardest we have ever faced. We didn’t leave the hospital as we were being prepared for the possibility our beautiful daughter might not survive. Team Evie provided us with blankets, games, scrap books as well as the use of iPads, TVs, baby mobiles and music boxes, without which our time would have been all the more difficult. We cherished every moment we spent with her and tried as best we could to create special moments that would last us forever. With the help of some truly amazing nurses, we took prints of her hands and feet (courtesy of invisible ink provided by Team Evie), and read her stories from the library on the ward. Every time we were offered the opportunity to make our time more memorable, we were told that Team Evie had made it possible.
Mali has since come home and our journey is by no means over, but we know that right now other families with be at the RVI in the PICU facing their own challenges. Our hope is that we can help Team Evie to keep supporting families in the way they supported us. Keep up the good work. You might not always get thanked in person, but the work you does not go unnoticed.
Love always, The Carters.
‘Always Moving Forward’
Appreciation is a difficult thing to show,
But as like -minded parents we thought you should know,
Our seven months in PICU,
Were unspeakably awful, but you helped us through,
Difficult days were made that much better,
For example at Easter, when we got your letter,
Everyone else was sitting at home,
But we were in turmoil facing the unknown,
And in your house, you took time to make,
Personalised cards and Simnel Cake,
This was just one of the amazing things that you did,
There were Ipads and TVs and toys for the kids,
Our time there could have gone so much slower,
You prevented our spirits from dipping even lower,
We avoided our friends and family too,
They didn’t understand what we went through,
But out there were people, who shared our pain,
Who had vowed to help others, from feeling the same,
And so saying thank is never enough,
For us as a family that Team Evie has touched,
As our inspiration we wanted to show you,
We’re ‘Always Moving Forward’, always thinking of you.
Thank you so much to Adam and Li-Am for sharing their story with us all, it is so lovely to get direct feedback about the difference Team Evie makes to families.
We will be back soon with episode #2 of Showcase Saturday!
Team Evie x