Mum in fight to save ill son's hospital care Friday, April 15, 2011
JACOB Pridmore has one of the rarest diseases in the country. Now his mother is fighting to save the medical facilities he relies on to survive.
Seven-year-old Jacob has Idiopathic Pulmonary Haemosiderosis which causes haemorrhaging in the lungs. Only one in four million people are sufferers, and Jacob's well-being is dependant on experts at Royal Brompton Hospital – which soon may no longer be able to treat him.
The London hospital could see its children's cardiac unit close under proposals by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts – a decision-making body representing all PCTs in England.
Royal Brompton's service will be split between two nearby hospitals.
Jacob's mother Collette, 34, and father Jeremy, 37, are in regular contact with staff at Brompton from their home in Sanderling Way, Iwade.
Both are also part of the Save the Royal Brompton Hospital Children's Cardiac Services campaign.
Mr and Mrs Pridmore were told Jacob, who goes to St Peter's Primary School in Sittingbourne, would not live past his fifth birthday. They say Brompton's doctors are the reason he continues to beat the odds.
Mrs Pridmore said: "He does really well. I think it's because he's so well managed.
"I don't think other hospitals will be able to provide the same level of service if the plans go ahead. They'll be overloaded. It doesn't make sense to stretch services further."
Mr and Mrs Pridmore are in contact with the hospital's children's care team on an almost daily basis. Staff e-mail the Pridmores to check up on Jacob and offer advice if he is suffering. He still goes to Brompton for intensive care when his health becomes more serious.
The campaign is collecting online signatures for a petition that will go to Parliament. So far there are 8,000.
Mrs Pridmore said: "If it closes I don't know what I'll do. I suppose I'll be guided by what Brompton tell me."
Jacob's condition limits what he can do. He cannot play football with the school team but can have a kickabout with brother Oliver, 9, in the garden.
Jacob, who also has a sister, Hannah, 5, was diagnosed with the rare condition when he was 2.
He had been in and out of hospitals all his life, having been born premature at 27 weeks.
Little is known about the condition, and Mrs Pridmore said they are tak ing things one step at a time.
Royal Brompton Hospital has launched a legal challenge against the Joint Committee of PCTs.
A Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: "Although this is a decision we have taken with the greatest reluctance and regret, we feel we have no alternative but to act in the interests of our patients."
Jeremy Glyde, the Joint Committee of PCTs' safe and sustainable programme director, said proposals were based on evidence that having two surgical units rather than three would lead to fewer deaths and complications. He added: "The proposal to base the two units in dedicated children's hospitals at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Evelina Children's Hospital is subject to consultation and no decision has yet been made on the number or location of surgical units in London."
To find out more about the fight to save Royal Brompton Hospital's paediatric cardiac surgical unit go to www.thebromptonfountain.co.uk
Collette is holding fundraising events for the cause all this week at Happy Days Children's Nursery in Ferry Road, Iwade.