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Fundraising for Matthew

Dad Sam was so grateful for the support and care his family received after the birth of his son Matthew, that he chose to have a birthday fundraiser as a way to say thank you. Here Sam shares his story and how Matthew, who was born with bilateral talipes (club feet), is thriving through his therapy.

“The story begins with my fiance’s waters breaking when she was 31 weeks pregnant (PPROM – Preterm premature rupture of the membranes) and having to stay in hospital for a week getting pumped full of antibiotics to try and extend our sons stay inside the womb. We also discovered that his position had changed and he was now breach and as there isn’t too much room to move once the waters had broken, it was unlikely he’d spin himself around.

We were sent home a week later and on the 20th August 2019 she started getting some pains and also couldn’t feel him moving too much, which was unusual as he was a constant kicker, so I we called the hospital and they asked us to attend the hospital.

Upon arrival at the hospital she was examined and admitted to stay the night as the EEG showed some very mild contractions, this was circa 1am.

I made my way back home, only a short drive from the hospital and at 4.30am I received a call to head back to the hospital as contraction had now become more intense.

On arrival at the hospital I was rushed to her room where a multitude of doctors and nurses were discussing what was going to happen.

I was then prepped to be by her side in theatre for the delivery of our son, after a failed epidural it was finally go time and within minutes our son had been welcomed to the world and was busily being attended to in the theatre.

Matthew at birth

He was then taken to the NICU where he only stayed for 4 days before moving on to the slightly more relaxed special care nursery where he then spent a further 4.5 weeks.

Our son Matthew was born at 7.05am on the 21st August 2019 weighing 1333 grams. Matthew was also born with bilateral talipes (club feet) which was previously discovered in the morphology scan.

Matthew with dad

“We had no further complications whilst in hospital and we were discharged 5 weeks after he was born.”

“Only a week or so later, with a corrected age of -3 days he developed an intense pain and was rushed to the children’s hospital and it was discovered he had an entrapped inguinal hernia which was able to be massaged back in whilst in the emergency room. Matthew had a bilateral repair of the hernia the next morning.”

As mentioned, Matthew was born with bilateral talipes, he commenced with the physios at the children’s hospital being casted and stretched on a weekly basis. Recently he had surgery for the bilateral lengthening of the tendons and his feet now look like any other babies, however, he will remain in boots and bars for some years to ensure the correction remains.

Matthew’s therapy

Matthew is now approximately 7.5kg and going strong.

We had such a great experience at both the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and a further great experience at the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

We appreciated the lunches, books and father’s day gifts provided by the Life’s Little Treasures Foundation along with the educational material on premature babies and hospital life as we went in to the experience blind, as no one expects to have a premature baby. ” Dad, Sam

Matthew today!

Celebrating for a cause

We are very grateful to the families in the community who generously fundraise for us through all kinds of events. Sam was so grateful for the support and assistance that Life’s Little Treasures gave his family in hospital that he ran a facebook birthday fundraiser for us. We all know how important milestones are for our precious treasures, and what an especially big deal a birthday is! We understand how difficult things are for so many people at the moment, so we are absolutely stoked that Sam was able to smash his target, raising a total of $600 to help other families of premature and sick babies!

Facebook birthday fundraisers are a great – and easy way of fundraise. If you’d like to celebrate your baby’s birthday this way, it’s pretty straightforward and your page is set up as a facebook event page and Facebook will prompt you to ask your friends to donate funds to your nominated charity in lieu of a gift. It allows your friends and family to donate via PayPal or credit card to Life’s Little Treasures Foundation in just a few simple clicks.

Follow these steps to create a birthday fundraiser:

  • Select ‘Life’s Little Treasures Foundation’ as the not-for-profit you would like to raise money for.
  • Select the total you’d like to raise
  • Select the date you want your fundraiser to end.
  • Add a title and description for your fundraiser.
  • Please let us know via Facebook or at [email protected] that you have created a fundraiser so we can say thank you!

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