William’s story

During the late stages of Brianna’s labour, the midwives realised something wasn’t right. When baby William arrived he was having trouble breathing and  was intubated and airlifted from Toowoomba to Brisbane.

Initially the doctors didn’t know what was wrong and how they could help William. An ECMO specialist came to help. ECMO – a machine which acts as the heart and lungs – is an amazing piece of equipment funded by the Children’s Hospital Foundation. The doctors told parents Brianna and Shane that if they couldn’t get William onto ECMO he would pass away overnight.

Mum Brianna recalls how the family coped “We never expected anything like this to happen to us. We were very emotional, sad, horrified that we were potentially saying goodbye to a newborn. Then grateful and lucky that he had this chance to live thanks to ECMO. It was very hard for our family, with two older children – one in school. My partner had to work as he is self-employed. Being separated and only seeing him and the kids once a week was extremely hard for all of us.”

Now two years old, William has physiotherapy once a month, occupational therapy once a month, hearing checks, and neurology check-ups at Queensland Children’s Hospital once a year.

Due to ECMO complications William suffered a stroke to the left side of his brain, doctors weren’t sure if William would be able to crawl, walk and talk but he defied all the odds against him. William is thriving at home, he loves  dinosaurs, music and he absolutely loves being outdoors playing on his scooter.

William is one of 20 ambassadors for the Woolworths Regional Wall Tokens campaign.

By purchasing a $2 wall token from now until the end of September, you are helping fund equipment and programs in your local hospital, which help families like Williams’s through an emotional, stressful, and at times uncertain journey.

Woolworths Regional Wall Tokens is an opportunity to highlight some of the brave kids throughout Queensland and northern New South Wales, who you can help by purchasing a wall token.