“I was so hot; I was so scared and sore! I didn’t realise what was happening.”
These are the words of 11-year-old Esona who lives in Worcester with his grandmother and cousins. Esona was rushed to the Emergency Centre of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital from the local hospital in Worcester after his pajamas caught alight from the flames of a candle. Nearly 6 weeks ago, the children were playing outside when the electricity went off. It was getting cold and dark outside, so the children were asked to come inside. The door was left open, so Esona lit the candle on the table and used the light from the candle to guide him to the open door. The draft from the open door caused the flame to latch onto his pajama top and it caught alight, the flames moved quickly.
Everybody started screaming and this courageous child remembered his teacher telling him to roll in the sand and he rushed outside to do just that. “I don’t remember much, but I do remember one time waking up at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and seeing my grandmother and family there praying and that made me so happy.”
The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital has been a place where countless children have been treated and cured. It has been a place of marvels for the families and caregivers, a mainstay of hope, a place that provides care and reassurance at a time when their world is in turmoil. Like Esona’s family, no-one plans to end up in an emergency unit. But when they do, there is no time to waste and this means making sure that any emergency centre facility is designed to give the best possible care in the shortest space of time.
The core values of the Emergency Centre at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital are to provide the best possible care for children in a family friendly environment. The medical team at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and partners identified key areas that needed to be upgraded and expanded to ensure that children continue to receive the best possible care and that their families are supported while these young patients are receiving emergency care.
In future, children with burns injuries like Esona will receive critical care in the burns room before going up to theatre for surgery and at the same time his family will be able to wait in a comfortable waiting area while their child is receiving the care they need. A family friendly environment provides much needed care and support for families as they are going through a very difficult time.
The building started will start during the last week of April 2019 and will be completed towards the end of 2021. The aim of the upgrade and expansion of the Emergency Centre is to improve the flow of the patients moving through the unit and ensure that the family are comfortable while they wait for their children to receive lifesaving care. A hundred percent of the donations received will go directly to the project, R41.9 million has been raised to date.
