The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is Southern Africa’s largest, stand-alone tertiary hospital dedicated entirely to child healthcare. It is a centre of excellence for the training of all categories of child health professionals, and widely regarded as South Africa’s leading centre for postgraduate specialist paediatric medical and surgical training.

The Children’s Hospital Trust was founded in 1994 to fundraise for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital when it was threatened with closure due to lack of funding. Since its inception the Trust has supported the Hospital through upgrading its buildings, purchasing vital equipment and funding critical training and research programmes.

The Breatheasy Programme is a unique specialist nurse-led initiative at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital that empowers parents of children reliant on a tracheostomy or artificial ventilation for breathing to provide safe care for children at home.

Tracheostomy patients around the world characteristically face lengthy hospital stays. Through careful training and support of families, the Breatheasy Programme ensures that children with Tracheostomies instead return home to their families and communities, as soon as they are medically stable. Once home, they are monitored as outpatients by the programme, while family members take responsibility for routine day-to-day medical care.

It is led by founder and specialist paediatric nurse, Sister Jane Booth, who co-ordinates a multi-disciplinary team of Healthcare professionals.

Pam’s Story
Whilst in Cape Town, we met a little girl called Pam who was reliant on her breathing device in order to lead a semi normal life. She was born with a condition called biliary atresia, a blockage in the tubes carrying bile from the liver. After an unsuccessful Kasai operation to try to correct this function, Pam was left with a life-threatening liver dysfunction. Associated with this, Pam not only developed rickets but also an inability to move her chest naturally, causing respiratory pump failure.

Pam entered the Breatheasy programme in March 2013 after she was given a tracheostomy to improve her comfort for ventilation. Thanks to the excellent treatment from the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in CPT, she was put on a breathing machine to aid her breathing and went from strength to strength. Her mother Charmaine gave up her employment to be with her 24 hours a day. Thanks to Sister Jane Booth, her team and the Breatheasy programme Pam was able to thrive and enjoy her parents and siblings in her own home environment, which we were also grateful to personally experience with her in 2014.

On the 11th February 2015 Pam was weaned of the ventilator and decannulated. She was walking, talking and playing! Pam was back on the list waiting for a suitable liver, when she was taken ill.

On the 15th June 2015 Pam lost her battle and passed away. Pam had developed a severe chest infection and was transferred to the ICU. We are deeply saddened for the loss of our beautiful Pam. What warms our hearts in her memory, is that she was afforded a much better quality of life thanks to the pulling together of so many caring people and that she was able to spend quality time at home with her family.

The Breatheasy Programme was covered by BBC Worldwide as one of the eight most innovative programmes being run in Africa. See Pam’s story below.