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Charity helps girl's family after heart operation

Chris Craddock
BBC Jersey communities reporter
Harry Barratt
BBC News, Jersey
Tom Gallichan Graycen is asleep in a hospital bed with pink headphones with hospital tubes in her nose. There's a couple of blankets on top of her and a teddy bear.Tom Gallichan
Graycen's family were helped to be with her when a stitch broke following open-heart surgery

A Jersey family have praised a charity that supported them while their daughter had open-heart surgery.

Graycen, 4, went to Southampton in December for the operation, but suffered further complications when a stitch in her heart broke.

It caused her to have two catastrophic haemorrhages, multiple cardiac arrests and a stroke.

She was in recovery for 17 days before returning home and the Grace Crocker Foundation provided financial help to Graycen's family during this time to assist with travel costs.

Tom Gallichan Tom is sitting in the hospital bed with Graycen as he reads her a book. He is wearing a black top. Gracyen has hospital tubes in her nose and a post surgery plaster on her chest. There's a cuddly star fish next to her.Tom Gallichan
Graycen's dad, Tom Gallichan, was able to travel to and from Southampton to be with his daughter thanks to support from the Grace Crocker Foundation

Tom Gallichan, Graycen's father, had to travel back and forth from Jersey to help with childcare for the couple's two younger sons.

He said when the stitch broke "it was pretty terrifying".

"There were about 15 nurses, doctors, and surgeons around her bed tending to her when she started to bleed out, Mr Gallichan said.

"I went into total shock and I've never experienced that before so it was touch and go for Graycen for about two hours until we heard that staff had managed to stabilise her.".

Graycen had seven blood transfusions and lost time threes the amount of blood she had in her body during the incident.

Tom Gallichan Graycen is sleeping in her hospital bed as she holds a cuddly turtle and her bunny is by her head. She has bandages on her hands and a breathing tube is by her head.Tom Gallichan
Graycen spent 17 days recovering after complications following her treatment in Southampton

Despite that Graycen managed to make a recovery with the support of treatments like Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) which temporarily does the work of the lungs.

Mr Gallichan said "they woke her up on a Saturday afternoon and she knew her mum was around her bed", which was a positive sign, and "everyday then she just progressed".

He said: "Her anxiety was quite bad especially when she was going to sleep and she would have nightmares and PTSD but that's gotten much better, which is an absolute blessing".

Graycen is now back in school three days a week and managed to make it home to spend Christmas with her family.

Tom Gallichan Tom and his family are in Jersey Airport with a paper sign saying "Welcome home GG". There's a balloon which says "You're awesome".Tom Gallichan
There was a warm welcome for Graycen when she came back to Jersey

Mr Gallichan said the Grace Crocker Foundation "were amazing".

He said the funding "was so helpful especially because it was towards the end of the month just before Christmas so they really helped us out".

The family have signed up to run or walk 164 miles (263.9km), which is the distance from Jersey to Southampton, during February to raise money for the charity.

They also plan to fundraise for other charities throughout the year.

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