Zoë's Place Baby Hospice in Coventry provides specialist care for babies and pre-school children who have complex medical needs or life-threatening conditions. Your donations help pay for a nursery nurse to provide stimulating sensory care during short respite breaks for up to six young children at a time - around 50 families a year. By using special multi-sensory equipment and by teaching through play, nursing staff ensure that the little ones can enjoy many new experiences despite their conditions. Jaime (left), who's two, is one of those children. She has a very rare type of muscular dystrophy called SMARD.
Her parents have learnt that many babies with this condition are mistakenly thought to have suffered cot death. Jaime lives with her mum, Sarah, dad Steve and younger sister, Emily, in Coventry. As she can't breathe unaided, she's on constant ventilation and is fed through a tube.
Her parents have learnt that many babies with this condition are mistakenly thought to have suffered cot death. Jaime lives with her mum, Sarah, dad Steve and younger sister, Emily, in Coventry. As she can't breathe unaided, she's on constant ventilation and is fed through a tube.
But her eyes are an amazing tool and she answers questions by pointing to things with them and by focusing on cards that are held up in front of her at school. She can also use an eye-gaze computer. She goes to Zoë's Place Baby Hospice for short overnight stays and it's the one place her parents can leave her, safe in the knowledge that all her medical and personal needs will be catered for.
Jaime's prognosis is promising - a woman with the same condition in America is now 19 and works as a personal assistant. But once she turns six, she'll be too old to attend Zoë's Place. And care at other children's hospices is in such demand because of improved medical knowledge that they may have to prioritise those children whose life expectancy is less stable.
For now though, Jaime and her family will continue to benefit from the excellent care that they receive at Zoë's Place Baby Hospice in Coventry.
Jaime's prognosis is promising - a woman with the same condition in America is now 19 and works as a personal assistant. But once she turns six, she'll be too old to attend Zoë's Place. And care at other children's hospices is in such demand because of improved medical knowledge that they may have to prioritise those children whose life expectancy is less stable.
For now though, Jaime and her family will continue to benefit from the excellent care that they receive at Zoë's Place Baby Hospice in Coventry.