Cadan's Little Battle 2019

https://www.facebook.com/cadanslittlebattle/  Cadan Geraghty was born on the 25th of August, 2014 in Galway, Ireland. In October 2014 Cadan was diagnosed with two rare chromosome abnormalities, The first being Jacobsons Syndrome a deletion of Q11 , along with a duplication of Q 12 . Although both conditions have been seen before separately, Cadan is only only known person recorded globally to have both conditions combined. He is now nearly 5 years old and after many major surgeries Cadan is now more complex than ever to care for and his risk of infections and complications have risen from high to sky high. Cadan is now fed through his small bowel at a constant rate with two 2 hour breaks in every 24 hours . These 2 hour breaks must be used to perform any sterile procedures , physio , bathing and floor time. Unfortunately Cadan’s feeding tube has not been seen before in the community setting. His parents, together with their community nurse are left managing this as best they can. Managing this is very hard on his parents. Because Cadan has no communication or understanding he doesn’t know how very dangerous it is to pull at these tubes and no matter what his parents or the nurses come up with he still finds a way to pull them. If he were to pull out the one from the bowel it’s then difficult for the surgeons to put back into to place , it also means more surgery and this can only be done in Dublin.  Therefore, Cadan requires 24 hour care and supervision, the majority of which is carried out by his mum and dad. While the HSE have allocated them a nurse for 2 nights a week  (8 hrs per night) from the end of March 2019 they need more than 2 nights sleep per week!!!! He also chokes and vomits up small amounts of stomach contents day or night , even in his sleep and because of his physical limitations Cadan can’t help himself when choking and vomiting;  he cannot move or get him self up and he doesn’t understand to roll himself into a safe position. As a result of this, if his mum Joanne or his dad Brian doesn't catch him at that very moment he can get into difficulty and aspirate.  How long Cadan's parents can sustain managing this way we don’t know.... Not only are one of them up all night or taking it in turns to stay awake as best they can with Cadan during the night , they also have to carry on with normal daily life during the day . Brian needs to go to work , their other children need to go to school and sports , Cadan needs to attend appointments anywhere from Galway to Dublin as well as family life to continue as normal as is possible for their other children. There’s no such thing as one of them going back to bed in the morning!  It’s now very hard for them to function without sleep and even harder to provide the standard of care Cadan needs without sleep ! So this page has been set up to raise money to provide night nursing for Cadan .The agencies that supply the night nurses depending on which agency , pay the the nurses up to €23 per hour so we will need to try and match it as best we can. To hire a nurse for 5 nights a week will cost €920.00 and for a year will be close on €48, 000.00!!!!  Obviously living on 1 income as it is, Cadan's parents don't have that kind of money so please please donate whatever you can afford...every little helps. Thank you xx