Fund-raisers help give toddler who endured major heart surgery special bed
A TODDLER from Northampton who endured major heart surgery has been given a special bed to keep him safe at night by a charity.
Matthew Molloy, aged three, of Grange Park, has a congenital heart defect and DiGeorge Syndrome, which means he has heart problems and difficulty eating.
He is reliant on tube feeding, most of which takes place overnight, but his dad Tim and mum Michelle live with the danger he will accidentally pull the tubes out in his sleep.
If this happens, his condition becomes so bad his family have to immediately take him to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Now, after £5,504 was raised with an appeal by the Chron’s sister paper, the Evening Telegraph, the disabled children’s charity Newlife has supplied him with a £5,504 specialist bed.
Mr Molloy said: “It has really taken away the worry of whether or not Matthew will accidentally harm himself.
“If he pulled out the tubes he would have to undergo an operation in Oxford to put it back in.
“We are very grateful to Newlife and all the people who have raised the money. We feel like they have really taken the cause to their hearts.”
A total of £2,429 of the cash for the bed was from donations from members of the public. And £710 was raised by pupils after a mufti day at Woodland View Primary School in School Lane, Grange Park, where Matthew’s brother, Adam, goes.
Matthew first featured in the Chron when his dad told of an operation at just 20-days-old when he received 11 hours of open heart surgery at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
He had been half an hour from death when doctors at Northampton General Hospital saved his life. He was then sent to specialists in Oxford for the operation where his parents feared the worst.
The operation, which had actually been pencilled in for when Matthew was older, fixed four separate defects including a hole in the heart.
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