Parents Make a Splash to Raise over £13,000 for Sick Kids

A couple from Bedworth have raised over £13,600 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity after swimming 55 miles as gratitude to the medics who saved their little boy’s life. 

George Bowman, a leisure centre manager from Bedworth, and his partner, swimming instructor Libby Reynolds, took to the pool and swam one mile every day for 55 days - the amount of time their now two-year-old son, Ritchie, spent at Birmingham Children’s Hospital after he suddenly fell critically ill with a Strep-A infection and Adenovirus, leading to sepsis and the amputation of part of one of his arms. 

When Ritchie was 11-months-old he came down with a sickness bug and after a sudden deterioration, George and Libby called 111 and an ambulance was sent to take Ritchie to their nearest hospital. From that moment everything felt like a blur and George and Libby watched helplessly as doctors worked on their baby, inserting cannulas, a chest drain and an Intraosseous line directly into the bone in his leg to quickly administer life-saving medication. 

Ritchie needed more specialist treatment than his local hospital could offer him so Birmingham Children’s Hospital sent its critical care ambulance service, KIDS NTS, to blue-light him to its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).   

On the way to Birmingham, Ritchie suffered multiple cardiac arrests and seizures and when he arrived at the hospital doctors and nurses swarmed to begin their life-saving care. It was only then that George and Libby fully understood the gravity of their little boy’s diagnosis. 

Ritchie's organs were beginning to fail and his left arm, where he’d accidentally pulled out his cannulas and his leg, where doctors at his local hospital had gained intraosseous access, were starting to lose their blood supply. Before long, Ritchie’s left arm and leg were showing signs of gangrene and doctors broke the devastating news to George and Libby that Ritchie’s arm would need to be amputated below the elbow, and a significant about of skin on his leg removed. 

 George and Libby were beside themselves but it was their baby boy’s best chance at survival and to their elation, the life-changing surgery was a turning point in Ritchie’s recovery and he quickly began to show signs of improvement. 

Ritchie remained on PICU until his first birthday, when he was well enough to be transferred to the hospital’s burns centre where he underwent further treatment including skin grafts to replace the dead skin that had been removed from his leg.  

Ritchie spent a total of two months in Birmingham Children’s Hospital before he was well enough to go home but the cardiac arrests and seizures he suffered meant he had sustained considerable brain damage so he was discharged as an outpatient, and underwent a further six weeks of rehabilitation treatment under the hospital’s neurology team to help regain his mobility and fine motor skills. 

George said: “Ritchie’s journey is far from over but for now he’s thriving at home and has just started nursery. Despite everything, he just cracks on! We feel we owe Birmingham Children’s Hospital an awful lot for everything its incredible staff has done for our family so we decided to fundraise to give something back. 

“We’re absolutely blown away by the support we received and the sheer amount of people who donated once we’d shared Ritchie’s story and explained why we were fundraising and we’re just so glad that we’ve been able to turn such a negative thing in our lives into such a positive and help the hospital that helped us to help others.” 

Miranda Williams, Director of Public Fundraising at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “George and Libby faced any parent’s nightmare but it’s truly heartwarming to know that the exceptional care that extended beyond just Ritchie, to their family, was able to invoke such passion and inspiration to raise such a phenomenal amount for us. 

“We’re so grateful to George and Libby for the staggering £13,600 they raised, which will go on to help us do more for countless brave patients like Ritchie, and their families too.”