8 July 2023
Danceathon for Juno and G4
Ebony Cursley, 30, from Poole, has organised a dance-a-thon for Southampton Hospitals Charity, and the G4 children’s ward that saved her daughter, Juno’s, 2, life after she received life-saving treatment following acute kidney damage from a sickness bug.
“In August, our family was struck down with what we thought was just a normal diarrhoea and vomiting bug.
Unfortunately, it seemed to hit Juno, then only 22 months old, a lot worse than the rest of us. After two days I took her to our local emergency department as I was concerned about her health.
I thought she was dehydrated due to the illness, however some blood tests it was confirmed that Juno had contracted an E-Coli infection which had spread to her kidneys, and caused a disease called Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).”
HUS affects the kidneys and blood clotting functions of infected people. Infection with HUS causes destruction of red blood cells, which can then cause kidney failure.
Ebony continues, “Juno was transported by ambulance to Southampton Children’s Hospital where we were seen immediately by the nephrologists on the ward G4 who specialised in kidney failure.
They tried to give Juno some medication but unfortunately it didn’t work as quickly as they had hoped.
In the middle of the night, Juno was rushed for an emergency operation to insert a PD catheter into her stomach, and haemo-filtration line into her neck. She was then started on a strong course of dialysis back on the ward to filter her blood.
After a few days her condition improved, and we moved back to G4 ward so they could provide dialysis through her stomach. In total, Juno was on dialysis for 12-20 hours a day for 12 days as we had to wait for her kidneys to wake up and produce urine!
Her body still didn’t respond as expected, so we were admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit where they used the haemo-filtration dialysis machine through the line on her neck.
It was truly heart breaking to see Juno so poorly. It was like she was just a shell of her former self. I am so thankful to the doctors and nurses for their quick thinking, and for everything that they did for Juno.
The staff were incredible at supporting my family and I throughout the stay, and so I wanted to say thank you by giving back to the children’s hospital through Southampton Hospitals Charity.
Juno is doing so well, you honestly would have no idea she was so poorly! She has had one check-up and the consultants were happy with her progress. And she will have another big check-up when we hit a year.
Raising money through a dance-a-thon
On 8 July I have organised 24 hours of non-stop dancing. I have invited my friends and family to come along for a boogie. You can donate, add music to the playlist, or take part in the raffle on the night also!
