An annual golf fundraiser, which takes place at Galway Golf Club tomorrow (Friday ) has raised more than €1/2 a million for Our Lady’s children’s hospital in Crumlin since its inception 28 years ago.
Thirty-five teams, comprising 140 golfers, will play in the Crumlin Golf Classic which hopes to raise €15,000 on the day.
The proceeds will go to the refurbishment of the oncology ward and the construction of a new cancer wing at Ireland’s largest paediatric hospital. In addition, the fundraiser will raise money for the neonatal intensive care unit at University Hospital Galway.
Jim Doyle, the chairperson of the event’s organising committee, says in any one year 4,000 Galway children visit Crumlin Hospital.
“In any one week 50 children from Galway attend the hospital and on average one child a day from here is having surgery in Crumlin.”
50 children a week from Galway attend Crumlin
He says the fundraiser was set up originally by a number of local people whose children were receiving treatment at the hospital.
Mr Doyle visited the facility in February and was “blown away” by the “remarkable” work it does, he says.
“It pulls big time at the heartstrings, everything else fades into darkness. The level of care, professionalism and dedication of the staff, as is the case in UHG also, is remarkable.”
He describes the Dublin hospital’s oncology ward as “pre-war” and says the hospital is in the process of raising €4m to refurbish it. Some of the money raised in Galway will be used for this purpose.
The golf fundraiser, which is fully booked out in Galway, will take place in 14 golf clubs throughout the country, from Cork to Donegal, during the period May to August. Anyone interested in making a donation to the fund should contact Jim Doyle at (086 ) 2208173.
Siobhan and Sean Hegarty from Glinsk have experience of both the neonatal intensive care unit at UHG and Our Lady’s Hospital, Crumlin through their son, Jack who will be four years old later this month.
Siobhan was originally expecting twins but lost one of the babies due to complications when she was six months pregnant. Jack was born 11 weeks early weighing 1.05kg.
“This was the start of our experience with St Claire’s neo-natal intensive care unit [NICU] in Galway. When Jack was born he was taken to the NICU. We didn’t get a chance to see him. Dr Donncha O’Donavan and his team were working hard on Jack as he was critically ill and needed assistance to breathe.
Immense kindness from nurses
“He needed a lot of assistance from a ventilator and eventually a CPAP machine [continuous positive airway pressure which uses mild air pressure to keep the airways open]. As the days went by his reliance on assistance breathing became less and less and finally they took him off all the breathing apparatuses until finally he could breath on his own. We were overjoyed. The nurses showed us great kindness during Jack’s time in the NICU. We could ring them at any time day or night and they were always friendly and would tell us everything we needed to know. We would ring them each night when we would come home from the hospital and each morning first thing. Each day we arrived in the nurses and doctors were always so kind and made us feel as ease as best they could at such a worrying and hard time.”
Eleven weeks after he was born the Hegarty’s little boy was allowed home. “We had been waiting for this day for so long, nobody only his grandparents had seen Jack. Because of the strict infection control regulations to protect the tiny babies visitors were not allowed to enter the unit. We have a large family so it was great for everybody to get to meet him at last. He weighed five pounds when we brought him home. There were great celebrations, it was great to have him home…our miracle baby.”
Jack was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and receives physiotherapy and occupational therapy through the Early Intervention service in Tuam. Siobhan describes him as a “happy placid little boy who brings us such joy every day”. He loves his little brother who was born in December.
Jack is also a patient of Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin, he has been an inpatient twice. He also has regular check ups there.
“We have always found them very helpful and reassuring during our time there. During his stay in the NICU in Galway the doctor liaised with the doctors in Crumlin about certain aspects of Jack’s health and they helped as best they could.
“We will forever be indebted to Dr O’Donavan and all the staff of St Claire’s neonatal intensive care unit. They saved our son’s life. Nobody realises the hard work and dedication each and every one of the staff of NICU do each day until you are in that situation yourself you really don’t understand.
“You can read about it and watch programmes about it, but no matter how much you read etc you will never be prepared for the ups and downs of going in and out of a baby unit for 11 weeks not knowing what the outcome may be but thank God our outcome was brilliant, but not everybody’s is unfortunately. These tiny little babies weigh from as little as one pound and they can save their lives. They are wonderful people, not a day goes by that we don’t think about them and all the hard work they do to save all these tiny babies’ lives.”
— For more details on how to enter, contact Jim Doyle at 086-2208173 or John McGinley at 087 - 2885585. Do your bit for Crumlin and help Galway children continue to get the care they deserve.
