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  A
FAMILY whose 13-year-old daughter collapsed and died after a heart defect went
undetected has presented a state-of-the-art ECG machine to Dorset Count
Hospital.
Alan and Gloria
Moss, whose daughter Laura had just been picked for the Olympic swimming squad
when she died three years' ago, have raised more than £12,000 in her memory. They
now plan to introduce intensive heart screening for children around the county,
and as a first step they have given the children's Kingfisher Ward a hi-tech
£5,000 ECG machine - which is so sensitive it picks up far more abnormalities
than a conventional machine. Picture:
In memory of Laura (right): Tina Roebuck, Kate Moss, Gloria Moss, Alan Moss, Sister Mary
Martin and Dr Richard Purvis with the ECG machine Significant Sister
Mary Martin said: 'This is a very significant donation - we are thrilled.' But
the family, who live in Springfield Avenue, Broadway, admit it has been tough
trying to carry on fundraising when they
are still grieving for the bright and talented little girl they lost. Gloria
is now starting a counseling course to make sure no-one goes through the trauma
of feeling totally isolated in the situation they found themselves in when Laura
died. She says the
family was left stranded, without anywhere to turn after the Wey Valley
schoolgirl collapsed and died, following a millisecond's failure in the electrical
currents going to her heart. It
was only when they attended the inquest into Laura's death that the Coroner told
them of an organisation called Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) and they finally
received specialist counseling to come to terms with what had happened. Gloria
said: 'There didn't seem to be anything in place to cope with anyone in our
situation - people should have known about CRY. 'The
first year you're in shock, then you start having problems. 'All
we received were tranquilliser tablets, then those stopped in case we got
addicted to them. Helplines We
turned to all the bereavement help lines but they seemed to be always on answer phone
or didn't have the experience to deal with our specific situation - we didn't
know anything about sudden adult death syndrome until we lost Laura. 'Then
when we contacted Alison Cox at CRY and she was wonderful, always available for
us.' Alan said: 'Without CRY
we would not have got through the first 12 months. 'Their
aim is to have mandatory cardiac screening for children and that is what we are
trying to do over the next few months, hold weekends when 150 children can be
tested. 'I'm told some people
can do fundraising after losing someone to the syndrome, and some can't cope. 'We
are a bit of both -sometimes we find it so difficult to do anything.'
With permission from the Dorset
Echo
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