By Engelbert Schmidl
PINK PIGS float above the heads of visitors stepping from the lift on the second floor maternity ward at Sunshine Hospital.
The papier-mache pigs hanging from the ceiling are a quirky reminder that miracles happen daily in this place.
A $27,000 infant resuscitation machine, bought by a fundraising group, will make sure the miracles keep happening.
Jon Evans, CEO of Western Health, personally thanked the Sunshine Hospital Harvesters group for their tireless work in raising the money to buy the resuscitator.
Eight babies a day are born, on average, in the hospital’s maternity ward and half of those will need a resuscitator.
The hospital has four of the machines; it recently decommissioned an older resuscitator.
Ngaire McClean, a senior nursing unit manager, said the machine was used daily for premature and caesarean birth newborns to help primarily with their breathing.
The new machine has been operating for about four weeks.
For the Harvesters, it was the culmination of 18 months spent manning stalls, knitting booties and sizzling sausages.
Marion Fowler, president of the Harvesters, said the group raised money to buy items on the hospital’s wish list.
The fundraising group formed in 2001 and has raised an estimated $80,000 for the hospital during the past five years.
But the resuscitation unit is the last the group will buy. A dwindling membership means the Harvesters will join the auxiliary at the Sunshine Hospital, and continue to raise funds with that group.
Fabulous gift … Sunshine Harvesters Marion Fowler and Margaret Allan, left, proudly stand by as new mum Kym Paterson and her one-day-old daughter, Kayla, use the machine they bought. Picture: DAMJANJANEVSKI.
