Loans Library

Holly was born with a hyperplastic heart, which meant that the left side of her heart didn’t develop.  When she was just one day old, Holly had her first operation and then at three months had her second operation. Holly’s last major surgery was when she was four and will hopefully be the last major operation she’ll need.

During Holly’s time at the Queensland Children’s Hospital, her mum Tamara was able to make the long hospital stays more bearable by tapping into the Loans Library Service.

“We first found out about Loans Library when Holly was admitted for her third open heart surgery. She was a little bit older then, so it was a great time to discover it.

“We found it amazing, we would go up and get things to help get movement from her arms when the therapists needed it and the toys just motivated her.

“Her favourite was probably the Play-Doh because she could do that in bed, and then as she got better she loved the hungry hippos and playing that game with the family – just to see that smile come back after you haven’t seen it for a while, it was beautiful.

“It’s an amazing thing because you could get so many toys, from Play-Doh to baby toys to Lego. There’s so much there to pick from –we could just go up whenever we needed it, to just entertain her and getting her sitting up in bed or moving around.

“We live a fair way away from the hospital so to bring things into the hospital is just not going to happen.

“The volunteers were so great, we’d either visit them on Level 6 or they’d bring Holly toys when she wanted them, which was a huge help.

“I would encourage everyone to use it, they have so much selection for all age groups and it just keeps the kids busy because there’s not much to do in hospital.

“When you are in a room by yourself, you don’t want them watching TV all the time, so it gets them sitting up, moving and encourages their hand movement – sometimes they are a bit reluctant to move their fingers if they have drips and drains.

“It made the hospital more fun for her and it also helped us with her physio exercises, we’d just pick toys that we knew would have the added benefit of movement and it made a world of difference.”