Hope for Toby

Little Toby Neilson, 6 years old from Somerset Tasmania, is currently in a critical condition at the Monash Children's Hospital in Melbourne after being medic-flown from Hobart Hospital . He is having uncontrolled seizures, recurring pneumonia and the doctors suspect that he has sepsis of his baclofen pump, which is a device to help control Toby's Dystonia by keeping his muscles relaxed. The doctors have been keeping Toby sedated and on a ventilator, and when they try to wean him off the sedation, he has massive seizures so they have to sedate him again. Toby was born at just 24 weeks and is profoundly deaf, has bilateral cochlear implants, epilepsy, sleep apnoea, Dystonic cerebral palsy and cortical vision impairment. Toby's Mum Vanessa is a tower of strength and has been by his side the whole time, despite going through her own medical emergencies. Vanessa has suffered three strokes and has multiple clots in her lungs. Sadly, her husband and Toby's Father Kent passed away in March this year of lung cancer. The family have barely had a chance to grieve as Toby's medical conditions have seen him in hospital for 13 weeks since March. Vanessa's three other children are currently in the care of family members and are obviously very worried about their little brother. When you have a child in hospital for long periods of time, it's not only emotionally stressful on the family, it's also financially stressful. Please give generously to this beautiful family and help to take away some of their stress.