Vivien's Story

Little Vivien’s greatest wish is to be home with her family – and, thanks to WellChild, that wish has come true.

The little girl is one of triplets. But while her brother and sister have always been at home with mum and dad, Vivien, who has complex medical needs, has spent long periods living on a hospital ward an hour and a half drive away from home.

But thanks to the hard work of WellChild Children’s Nurse Lucy Andrews Vivien is now playing in the front room of her home in Basildon alongside her brother and sister with her proud mum and dad looking on.

Two year old Vivien and her brother and sister, Harry and Eva, were born prematurely but while Harry and Eva thrived Vivien was very ill with respiratory disease and a rare chromosomal disorder. So far in her short life she has coped with a series of serious health problems and undergone many medical procedures.

The last seven and a half months of her life have been spent at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge where the staff have worked hard to stabilise her condition and saved her life on two occasions when her heart stopped.

What mum and dad Julie and Mark Pearson were dreaming of was the day she could come home with the family. Now, thanks to the hard work and preparation of WellChild Nurse Lucy, that day has come.

When Lucy was introduced to the family she began to support them with all aspects of Vivien’s care, focusing on getting her home as soon as possible. Lucy gave Julie and Mark emotional and financial support including organising nursery care for Eva and Harry. This meant the couple was able to spend time being trained by Lucy to use all of the equipment that Vivien needed. There was a huge amount of organisation to ensure that Vivien could be safely cared for at home, Lucy liaised with other professionals involved in her care to get equipment and supplies arranged.

With Lucy’s help the family was reunited at home in time for Christmas 2010.

Julie said: “Being home for Christmas is so exciting, we can finally have some normality with all the build up beforehand and opening presents with all three children on Christmas morning”.

 “We are ecstatic, it means the world to have Vivien home and we just wish we had a Lucy at our local hospital”.

Considering the future, Vivien’s dad Mark said: “We are looking forward to being all together again, it’s been a long road and we nearly lost Vivien twice. Just to get out of hospital and into our own home environment will be brilliant. It will just be nice to be together as a family.

“Without Lucy we would have been in the situation of having to go home without any help which is not a good place to be in when you’ve got another two babies to deal with. It’s reassuring to know you have someone like Lucy on your side.”

 

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