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1 Year Old Matthew Russell

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Matthew Russell, one year old resident of Yuleba.

Tim and Cindy need financial help – the Yuleba community knows them to be very proud people, and is therefore, rallying on their behalf to raise money, with the help of the Roma Apex club and a GoFundMe campaign, to help them cover their mounting costs. There’s travel and accommodation as well as the repairs to the kitchen required. Most importantly, a reverse cycle air conditioning unit will have to be installed before bringing Matthew home can even be considered. Looking ahead, there will be significant costs to get Matthew back to the burns unit for check ups in coming months.

Further detail:

Matthew’s mum, Cindy was sterilising baby bottles on the free standing mini-oven the family is using while they are renovating their kitchen. It was located on top of the permanent stove they have purchased but have been saving to have professionally installed. Cindy was away in another room for a moment, getting Matthew’s pyjamas. He was about to have a bath.

The toddler opened the uninstalled stove door, used it as a step, climbed up and pulled the mini-stove, including the saucepan of boiling water, down. The mini-stove and saucepan landed on top of him as did the boiling water, causing third degree burns to his left ear, neck, chest, shoulder, arm and leg.

Matthew’s heart rate was dangerously high after the accident, remaining over 200 BPM for the first week, exacerbated by his previously unknown allergy to the morphine being administered for pain relief.

Matthew required a general anaesthetic every three days for the first two weeks just to have his bandages changed. Broken-hearted Cindy and Tim were unable to cuddle or comfort him physically at all during this harrowing period.

There were more trips to theatre than just the three-day visits for bandage changing - there have been six operations to scrape the cauterised skin back to the blood vessels in preparation for skin grafts.

Matthew required CT scans of his bladder and bowel, which were swollen from the trauma, his lungs filled with fluid and he has required blood transfusions. In addition to the complication of his previously unknown morphine allergy, Matthew has had to fight two different infections contracted in connection with the blood transfusions.

On Monday, 15 August Matthew was given his first skin graft surgery. Unfortunately air leaked from his body suit afterwards and the graft didn’t take – he had a second round of surgery on Wednesday, 17 August and seems to be doing well at this stage.

Parents Tim and Cindy are making sure at least one of them is always at his side – but only one parent can stay with him overnight at time. The other is catching the shuttle bus to and from their Ronald McDonald House room as the costs of cabs and parking are so high. They have not taken a larger room that could accommodate their other two sons as they are fearful of the mounting room costs. They will not know the final bill until they leave and their circumstances are assessed, but they know of others whose three week stay at the centre left them with a $1,500 bill to cover. With no income coming in and personal and car loans to repay, the couple is anxious to keep their costs down; they are struggling to meet their financial commitments as it is.

It is not known at this stage how long Matthew will be in hospital. In any case, there will be many months of check ups in Brisbane after this initial period of hospitalisation. He will certainly be in a complete body suit for at least eight months, probably much longer.

There are urgent things the family must make happen before Matthew can return home – the burnt-through kitchen lino must be replaced and the permanent stove installed. Most importantly, a reverse cycle air conditioning unit will have to be purchased and installed as Matthew cannot be allowed to sweat in his body suit and Yuleba’s summers are long and very, very hot.

Cindy, Tim, Jack, Tom and Matthew are a very close loving family. Being such proud people Cindy and Tim are not the people that feel comfortable to ask for help.
But they are very thankful for any help they can get at the moment.

Organizer

Tammy Hassall
Organizer
Clifford QLD

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