HELP Heal a Little Heart

Suzie Ericksen and Greg Perrin became parents to Brody Perrin on the 21st of March 2014. What was supposed to be one of the happiest moments in their lives soon turned into a heartbreaking and hugely stressful situation which no body should have to go through. Brody arrived two months earlier to his due date and suffers from a very rare heart defect, mitral stenosis, VSD (hole in the heart), soggy lungs, hyper respiratory issues, pulmonary oedema , and respiratory distress.

His condition is so rare many of the top surgeons had not encounted it before. The first six months of Brody's life was spent in the NICU ward in Christchurch woman's hospital. When Brody was born they were told it was comman for babies to suffer from VSD and that after a simple procedure Brody would be fine. Suzie and Greg went ahead with the purchase of their family home, thinking that they would both be back to a double income within a year.

Unfortunately, they recieved the devastating news about Brody's actual condition when they flew up to have the VSD operation. They were told by the cardiologist that Brody will require on going care and future valve replacements. In the past 11 months, Brody has been home for only three of these, seeing sunlight for the first time and experiencing the outside world in September last year.

He has endured more procedures and hospital time than most of us do in our lifetimes. Their first born has had the following operations, two open heart surgeries, one peg insertion and two heart catheterizations, all of which required full anesthetic.

This has been a harrowing, tragic, heartbreaking and stressful time all rolled into one and no one deserves to go through this kind of pain. All the while they have bills to pay, mortgage, petrol, power, phone, all of the stuff we budget for in our monthly pay. Only they are sitting by Brody's bedside either in starship or Christchurch hospital watching their child being pumped full of medication after medication, a lot of diuretics, which in turn requires a large amount of nappies.

Brody is on at least five different medications a day administered threw a peg in his stomach. Brody is nill by mouth and has been since birth. Because of continuous injections in his little veins, an ultrasound machine is now required to find veins before being able to inject him, it can take several pricks and up to 30 mins to find them.

Brody had a unique and difficult procedure performed and unfortunately due to massive complications, a second open heart surgery was required recently. He has spent the last five weeks in starship

Suzie and Greg are both hard working individuals, always with jobs and ready to help others when needed. Suzie and Greg reside in Christchurch which is were Greg's job is, however they have been in starship on and off over the past 11months of Brody's life. They have used all of their holiday pay and sick leave to be by Brody's side.

They have a mortgage to pay and have to buy an inordinate amount of nappies and wipes due to Brody's dierectic medication. They only receive $46 dollars a week for the child's disability allowance and that is it. This has been and will continue to be a long road for them as Brody will require on going hospitalisation for monitoring and further heart surgery as his body grows.

These people are a one income family, which is difficult in itself, Suzie will be required to be Brody's full time career for the future. We ask everyone to dig deep, share this page with all of your family and friends. We know you cannot help with the emotional stress but if you can help relieve some of the financial stress this couple are experiencing, this journey may be made slightly easier for Suzie, Greg and little Brody.

"Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." Elizabeth Stone