Help for Baby Bruce

Hi,

My name is Aly and I am setting this fundraising page up for my wonderful friends Megan & Ken, They are truly the most kind and selfless people that I know.

On the 20th of march 2024 beautiful baby Bruce was welcomed into the world,

He was a little poorly from the start but the doctors around them thought it may have been fluid on the lungs, It wasn't until a week later when he started to struggle to breathe that they transferred him to Southampton hospital for tests and more specialist treatment.

It was here where they gave Bruce an mri scan and unfortunately discovered that he was born with a large mass behind his lungs which was pressing on his wind pipe and also the two main veins in his neck.

It was at this point that his mum and dad were told that he would have to be sedated and transferred by helicopter to great Ormand street hospital for this very risky but life saving operation - even further away from home and their other children.

The operation went ahead on the 3rd of April, It was so hard to see his little body with wires and tubes coming out but the operation was a success and he was now into the recovery stage.

Megan & Ken were in London for a week, This was really hard on both of them as the outcome was still unknown and they were so far from all the people that they loved.

The doctors decided he was stable enough to take Bruce off of his paralysis drugs and wait for him to come round, This was the first time since he was born that Megan & Ken were able to see him open his eyes.

Then it was a waiting game for Bruce to stabilize enough to get the ok from the cardio thoracic surgeons to be transferred back to Southampton hospital.

At 3 weeks old Bruce had stabilized enough for them to take him off of his ventilator to see how he would cope, which had previously been his life support machine it was discovered at this point that Bruce has left sided vocal cord palsy and also palsy of his diaphragm.

Which meant that he wouldn't be able to breathe for himself for foreseeable future and this has meant another operation for Bruce to have a permanent tracheotomy fitted.

The operation was done on Monday the 29th of April and was also a successful operation. He is recovering well but it will be a little while before they can make a plan to be transferred to a closer hospital and then eventually home, to which he will need specialist 24hour care.

With all of this going on mum & dad are still yet to have proper cuddle with their now 5 week old baby.

Megan & Ken are hard workers both holding down full time jobs while still being wonderful parents to their 3 other children, it has been incredibly difficult for them to be away from their kids and home.

Now Bruce has stabilized enough both Megan & Ken have had to travel to and from hospital to support their other children and for Ken to be able to return to work, with the cost of fuel and train tickets it is a massive financial drain and is a burden that no parent in this situation should ever have to go through.

adding to this while driving up to London to be with Bruce they were given mis information by the hospital about London's lower emission zone charges and bank holiday dates.

This has resulted in them receiving a fine for that day, but as this was delivered to their home they now have to pay the higher amount as it wasn't paid within 14 days.

I am setting up this page to try and alleviate the financial pressures on them both at the moment, to allow them concentrate on the important things and to learn how to adjust to this new way of life.

Thank you ever so much for taking the time to read, any help will be a blessing.