A TODDLER born blue and lifeless is starring in a new campaign for the charity which helped him recover.
Two-year-old Ethan Boffin from Rugby is now a ‘typical naughty toddler’ – but his life began in difficult circumstances when he was born unable to breathe for himself after a long labour.
After being resuscitated at University Hospital Coventry’s neonatal intensive care unit, he had a seizure and showed signs of oxygen deprivation.
Parents Chris and Reah were told about a cooling technique developed to prevent brain damage to babies starved of oxygen at birth.
Chris said: “When Ethan was born there were moments Reah and I didn’t think we’d ever be able to take him home. Watching him struggle in hospital was an absolutely horrible time – the worst period of our lives by far.
“We didn’t know if the cooling treatment would work, but after he’d had it and they started raising his temperature back to normal, he became so much more alert and even pulled out his own ventilation tube.
“After ten days, when his tests and MRI scans came back clear, we took Ethan home.”
He said Ethan was now thriving.
“He’s a real little character. He loves cars and ice cream, and he’s doing really well and meeting all his developmental milestones which is fantastic.”
Campaign star – Ethan with parents Reah and Chris.
Children’s medical research charity Sparks funded the research which made the cooling technique possible.
So Chris and Reah decided to support the charity’s new campaign, ‘Sparks – No Time To Lose’, which has launched with a hard-hitting awareness film featuring Ethan and four other children affected by rare and complex conditions.
The campaign highlights that one in three children with a rare disease won’t live to celebrate their fifth birthday.
Chris added: “We’re so very thankful to Sparks, and I’ve since taken part in Ride London alongside my dad to raise money for them.
“After everything we’ve been through we know just how important it is to fund research that helps save babies’ lives.”
Sparks director Kiki Syrad said: “Child health research is severely underfunded. We have launched our new campaign to help us raise funds to support more child health research projects across the UK.
“We need to find new treatments that these children and their families urgently need; for critically ill children there’s no time to lose. We’re so grateful to Ethan’s family for sharing their story for our new campaign and helping us to highlight this important message.”
Sparks aims to raise £10million to fund new treatments.
Visit www.sparks.org.uk to find out more. See above to watch the campaign film featuring Ethan.
