On the 11th February 2022, our 3 year old son, Jude, was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit at the RVI hospital, due to severe acute kidney failure, believed to have been caused by a complication of strep throat; prior to this, Jude was a fit and healthy boy.  Jude was placed into an induced coma and required dialysis in order to clean his blood and help to repair his kidneys; whilst the staff assured us they were doing the best they could, we were told to prepare for the worst.

Whilst in intensive care, Jude suffered many complications, which required several blood transfusions and a lot of trial and error regarding treatment and medication.

Thankfully, after 4 days of dialysis, and much to the amazement of the medical team, Judes kidneys showed signs of improvement and began to slowly repair themselves; and following almost 2 weeks in a coma, Jude was successfully extubated and began to breathe on his own.

After a few days of recovering, following various withdrawal symptoms, Jude was transferred to a renal ward where he was monitored for a further 7 days, before being discharged.

At what was the most stressful and terrifying time of our lives, the service and accommodation provided by The Sick Children's Trust, was invaluable to us as a family, as it gave us a place to rest whilst being as close to our son as possible, all free of charge. 

Jude continues to be monitored as an outpatient at the RVI, and is continuing to make amazing progress.