HEALTH

Family the driving reason behind vaccination

THE Burdekin has been visited by Townsville Hospital and Health Service’s rural staff vaccination program, who set about dishing out COVID-19 vaccination doses from Ayr and Home Hill Health Services.

Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery and COVID-19 Vaccination Project lead Judy Morton welcomed the chance to visit the Burdekin.

“A team of nine set-up the Ayr Health Service to administer vaccinations to health service staff and emergency services,” Mrs Morton said.

“We have an additional follow-up visit scheduled in the next few weeks to deliver the second doses to staff.”

Nisha Desai, a registered nurse at the Ayr Health Service, said her family were the reason why she wanted to ensure she was booked in to be vaccinated.

“My husband and my families are living in India where there has been a serious COVID-19 outbreak.

“Last week my mother was hospitalised in intensive care with the virus and my Dad contracted it too.”

“Now that Mum is recovered and out of ICU she has said her and my Dad will both get their vaccines.”

Nisha said she felt helpless knowing her mum was in ICU with COVID-19 half the world away.

“Being in another country when she was so unwell was so stressful,” Mrs Desai said.

“I had a whole week of sleepless nights where I was waking up at 2am with clammy hands from the worry.

“After what my parents went through, I knew I had to get the vaccine.

“Working in healthcare I know prevention is better than a cure and that is why I’m getting the vaccine to lessen the chance of getting really sick from COVID-19.

“I feel very lucky to be vaccinated in the Burdekin and am proud to be leading by example.

“Together we can do this; let’s prevent getting COVID-19 for our friends, families and our community.”

Mrs Morton said the health service would continue its rollout, and progress with staff vaccinations in accordance with the federal government’s recommendations.

“The most important thing to remember is that vaccination is incredibly safe, and adverse reactions are rare,” Mrs Morton said.

“I’m very proud of the vaccination team for working tirelessly to make sure our rural staff had access to vaccination as soon as it was practical.”

Vaccination, along with good hand hygiene and social distancing, is a key to the fight against COVID-19.

Please be aware that most of the community will receive their immunisation through their GP, not the hospital.

CONNECT NOW:

For information on eligibility, or to find a GP near you who is offering the vaccine, visit health.gov.au and follow the links to the eligibility tracker.

Registered nurse Nisha Desai receiving her vaccine from registered nurse Indya Reynolds at the Ayr Health Service

Amy Cranitch from the Burdekin Academy also got on board, raising money for Callie and Jodie’s fundraiser

Jodie’ Mills with daughter Callie who wears her HeartKids beads, withe each bead representing a surgery or incident in hospital.

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Marina Trajkovich

THE day doctors told Jodie Mills that her seven-year-old daughter Callie had a 2cm hole in her heart, the mother of two was in shock.

Callie, now thirteen, was an energetic young girl with no obvious signs characteristic of congenital heart disease, a condition that takes the lives of four children a week in Australia.

“We found out that Callie had a heart defect, a 2cm hole in her heart that had been undiagnosed for all that time. Normally it is something that’s picked up earlier in life, and it was a sort of fluke that we even found out,” says Jodie.

“I’d been at the doctor with her for something else, and he had asked if I knew about her heart murmur. I hadn’t, and we didn’t really think too much of it. He had said that it’s usually nothing to worry about,” she says.

A heart murmur is an extra sound picked up by doctors outside a regular heartbeat, a whooshing sound that can indicate turbulent blood within or near the heart.

“We didn’t think it would be anything, so it was a bit of a shock when we found out she had a heart defect. It was pretty surreal,” says Jodie

The hole in Callie’s heart had been there since birth after the natural gap between a baby’s upper heart chambers that usually closes at birth remained open.

“The right side of her heart was twice that of her left, and the pressure on her lungs was twice what it should have been,” says Jodie.

The primary school teacher explains the stressful months between Callie’s diagnosis and surgery in Brisbane from their family home in Brandon.

“We were told that if she didn’t have the heart surgery, she would have needed a

heart and lung transplant by the time she was in her 20s, and if that didn’t happen, it would be premature death by her 30s.”

“The waiting for the surgery and not being able to do anything was the worst part,” says Jodie.

“That’s why we started fundraising because I just felt so helpless,” she says.

Since Callie’s diagnosis and the success of her surgery, the pair have been raising money for HeartKids Australia, the national organisation supporting the countries ‘heart kids,’ and spreading awareness of congenital heart disease.

“We connected with local families and found out there were a lot of heart kids in the Burdekin. Some have much more serious conditions than Callie,” says Jodie.

The mother-daughter duo have been fundraising for the organisation’s SweetHearts campaign since February, HeartKids’ annual fundraiser for Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Month.

They’ve run two awareness stands at the Willows Markets in Townsville recently and, through donations from the community this month, have raised almost $2,000 for Heart Kids.

Contributing to their efforts this month has been Amy Cranitch, Callie’s gymnastics coach who runs the Burdekin Academy in Ayr.

Selling bracelets at the school, Amy raised $381 towards Jodie and Callie’s fundraiser.

“When Amy offered to help out, I got really excited because it was just nice that other people wanted to help and make a difference too,” says Jodie.

“We’re so grateful for the support and will continue to raise awareness.”

CONNECT NOW:

To donate to HeartKids Queensland, the organisation supporting families and ‘heart kids’ with childhood heart defects, visit heartkids. org.au.

Community members raise money for Queensland’s HeartKids

“IT WAS A BIT OF A SHOCK WHEN WE FOUND OUT SHE HAD A HEART DEFECT.”

JODIE MILLS