Children’s care unit offers Amin fresh hope

LITTLE Amin Mahmoud was running rings around the doctors and nurses in the new children’s transitional care unit in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Dublin yesterday.

Seeing the three-year-old so full of energy was a real treat for the medical staff who had cared for him since he was born.

Because Amin was born with a life threatening illness he needed to be on a ventilator to help him breathe and was hospitalised for the first two years of his life. But, until recently, children like him could only be cared for in an intensive care unit.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who officially opened the new unit, said it was borne of the desire of staff to provide the best possible care for a very particular group of sick children and their families.

Dr Martin said the unit was developed to ensure that children’s basic needs for stimulation, play and the closeness of their families. and was addressed without any compromise in the provision of medical care and attention.

The opening of the new unit, the first of its kind in Ireland, also allows badly needed intensive care unit beds to be freed up for acute admissions of critically ill children or those requiring post-operative care.

Consultant anaesthetist and co-director of the unit, Dr Billy Casey said the unit, which currently consisted of five beds, allowed families to become more involved in the sick child’s care in comfortable surroundings while gaining confidence and experience in dealing with the complex needs of their child.

Amin’s mother Dr Ayda Mahmoud who is originally from Sudan has been living in Ireland for four years, and also has a seven-year-old son, Muhammad. Ayda’s husband, Mundasir, is also a doctor. The Mahmouds were living in Cork when Amin was born but now live in Dublin.

“When Amin was born he could not breathe for himself. He could not move his body and he could not swallow so he could not be fed orally,” said Ayda.

Ayda, who gave up practicing medicine when Amin was ill, said the new facility made a big difference because it allowed children to be in a homely environment while getting the best of medical care.