5,000 thanks for saving our girl

A GRATEFUL couple presented staff at a neonatal intensive care unit with a cheque for almost £5,000 to say thank you for saving their baby daughter’s life.

Little Lola Griffin, from Cheadle, Stockport, was born on January 10 at just 29 weeks old after mum Rosie suffered from pre-eclampsia, and had to spend the next three months on the unit.

Dad Mike said the care she received at Stockport’s Stepping Hill Hospital was ‘fantastic’, and he and Rosie wanted to raise the money as a way of saying thank you.

“She had a few ups and downs while she was in the hospital and she was in intensive care for quite a bit of it,” he said. “The staff were so good to us.

“Rosie went into the hospital with a headache, and the next day Lola was born. It was a very scary time – it was horrible. It was so hard seeing her in an incubator for such a long time.”

And their work was not done when Lola was discharged, as on a visit to the hospital for a routine check-up she stopped breathing. Mike said: “She had turned purple. She had to be resuscitated, which took about half an hour. I think that was the scariest part of the whole thing, but it was amazing that we were at the hospital when it happened.”

Mike, who has two other children from a previous relationship – Josh, 14, and Rosie, 10 – works at Tesco and the company helped him kickstart the campaign.

Sarah Fulwood, neonatal nurse manager at Stepping Hill, said: “We are absolutely delighted at this kind donation from Mike and Rosie in thanks for the care we gave Lola, which will help us provide care for others in the future.”