Heartbreak of mother in hospital lockdown with son
A HEARTBROKEN mum whose son became paralysed after a stroke has shared her experiences of living in Wales’ children’s hospital during lockdown.
Hanzen Griffiths, from Ebbw Vale, has been a patient at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff ever since the Covid-19 restrictions were put in place.
During that time the 10-year-old, along with his mother Michelle Stevens, have spent almost the entire period in isolation, seeing only NHS staff.
The pair have spent weeks on end being unable to see friends or family members, only leaving the confines of their ward for 30 minutes of daily physiotherapy.
And as Hanzen has severe autism, along with a range of other chronic conditions including hearing and sight problems, he is unable to understand why he cannot go outside.
“Hanzen loves his McDonald’s, but he doesn’t understand why he can’t have one,” said mum Michelle.
“He won’t eat normal food like the rest of us, and trying to get him to eat other things can be a real challenge, especially in hospital and under lockdown.
“It’s all been absolutely heartbreaking. We cannot see anyone, talk to anyone face-to-face and he has only seen his older sister Shannon twice through a glass window.
“This whole thing has split our family apart.”
Hanzen, described as having a “wicked” sense of humour, was told by doctors that he had a severe form of chickenpox at the start of March and would need to rest at home.
But when he became disorientated and was unable to hold his head up he was taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.
While there, he suffered a stroke and was eventually transferred by ambulance to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, which is based at the site of the University Hospital of Wales.
“He’s now unable to move the left side of his body,” said Michelle.
“Scans showed that he had a blood clot in a main artery in his neck, and then the subsequent stroke starved his brain of oxygen.
“The fact he had a stroke while having chickenpox was just a coincidence.”
To make matters worse Hanzen, who was born with Down’s syndrome, went on to suffer from pneumonia and sepsis which were luckily detected early on.
“The staff at the children’s hospital saved his life. There’s no question about that,” said Michelle.
The stroke has left Hanzen, who loves Mr Tumble, Mrs Brown’s Boys and his iPad, unable to walk. He now needs a hoist to be able to go to the toilet and wash himself.
He is also unable to take advantage of the children’s hospital garden, hydrotherapy pool or gym as they are all out of bounds during the pandemic.
And Michelle, who has hardly left her son’s bedside in the nine weeks they have been at the hospital, said the family have also had to find somewhere else to live.
“We’ve had to move out of Ebbw Vale and find a house with adaptations to meet Hanzen’s needs,” she said.
“I haven’t been able to help my husband, Matthew, at all with that. We’re hoping to get the keys to a new place at the end of next week.”
Michelle sang the praises of NHS staff at the hospital whom she said have done everything possible to make their stay as comfortable as possible.
Staff nominated her for the Noah’s Ark Charity’s “sparkle fund” which led to Michelle being awarded with an afternoon tea and a pamper hamper.
“I feel a ‘thank you’ isn’t enough,” she said.
“One or two of these nurses have told me that they haven’t seen their own children since the start of lockdown. They are truly amazing people and they’ve made such sacrifices.
“One of the play team even came to massage Hanzen’s hands to reassure him that the people in PPE weren’t scary.”
The Noah’s Ark Charity exists solely to raise funds for the Noah’s Ark Children’s
Hospital for Wales. It raises in the region of £1.6m per year which goes directly to funding equipment, facilities and services.
But since the start of the Covid-19 crisis in March, the charity has seen a 50% drop in income.
The charity’s director Suzanne Mainwaring said: “Our supporters have been wonderful but the majority of those we’ve spoken to have understandably assumed that we’re OK because we’ll receive support via NHS Charities Together and the £750m charity support package announced by the UK Government last month.
“But the reality is very different. At this moment we’re focused on supporting the hospital in whichever way asked of us as this current situation evolves and right now we are just managing to do that.
“We’re funding food for parent kitchens, iPads so that children can keep in touch with family at home and small tokens of recognition for frontline staff to keep up morale.
“But we’re also acutely aware that the needs of the children, families, staff and services we set out to support before all this started are still very much a reality and will continue to be once all this is over.”
The Noah’s Ark Charity has set up an emergency appeal to support its work through the current crisis and beyond. For more information visitwww.noahsarkcharity.org. It has also launched its Noah’s Ark Step Challenge, a family fundraising activity which people can partake in together from the comfort of their own home.