Adania, 3 years, Hypotonic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy

Little Adania doesn’t give up easily. In the past 6 months alone she has battled both bacterial and viral pneumonia, as well as the daily challenges that come from her complex condition.

During her most recent hospital admission, Adania’s mum, Kate, became very concerned. “She wasn’t herself and her breathing wasn’t normal,” she said. “We’d already spent one day in Emergency and a couple of nights on the wards and Adania was on the maximum amount of oxygyen, as well as antibiotics. She had nasal prongs and a face mask to deliver the oxygen, but it became clear that she needed a more sophisticated system to help her breathing.”

Doctors moved Adiana to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and placed her on the Bipap Vision non-invasive ventilator. “This ventilator provides respiratory support in a relatively non-invasive way,” said Dr Tony Slater, Director of PICU. “Traditionally we have used breathing tubes placed through the vocal chords as a means of providing respiratory assistance and children require sedation to tolerate this,” he explained. “With this ventilator, respiratory assistance is provided via a snugly fitting mask and children do not need nearly as much sedation to tolerate the help. As Adania recovers it is much easier to give her breaks from the ventilator, and gradually reduce her time on it.”

Adania’s response to the ventilator was a great relief for Kate. “Since being on the ventilator her oxygen levels have been maintained and her chest x-rays show better expansion of the lungs,” she said. “As a parent, it’s much less scarier to see this ventilator being used than the traditional tubes and sedation.”

To Our Riders, Sponsors and Supporters

On behalf of both Ron Delezio (CEO and Founder of the Day of Difference Foundation) and myself, thank you for helping us make a difference. Whilst the Day of Difference Foundation, and for that matter Entoure, have focused their attention on supporting critically injured kids, the above story shows that purchasing emergency equipment for the ICU goes way beyond the kids are efforts aim to support. All kids admitted to the ICU benefit from what we are doing. So lets keep the ball rolling and make the Entoure Cycle Classic, Kingscliff 2010 our most successful tour ever.

Kent Williams
Director Entoure