A family who went through a "catastrophic medical event" and years of care with their now eight-year-old son have credited Starship's intensive care unit with his survival. They paid tribute as the hospital unveiled its $48 million renovation.
Kelsi Porter and her husband Andy's son Chase was born in March 2017 and arrived at Starship's Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) just one month later.
"I remember when Chase was just a baby and we first got admitted to PICU, which was so daunting," Kelsi explained.
"We knew that Chase being that sick, we really needed to get to PICU to get that level of care for a child with such a catastrophic medical event."
She said the staff immediately put her at ease, and offered reassurance.
"The doctors often have to say the worst case scenario — and we'd heard a lot of worst-cases — but the PICU nurses came in and said, 'congratulations on your baby', and it's the first time I'd heard that."
In the years that followed, Chase was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that caused his heart to fail and would require a heart transplant.
He became only the fourth child in New Zealand to be connected to a Berlin Heart, a mechanical device attached to a trolley outside of his body that acted as a bridge while awaiting a transplant.
Chase was connected to the artificial heart for four months before a transplant became available when he was six in 2023.
Kelsi said during this time it was the PICU nurses who offered the same "little bit of happiness" they had experienced all those years before.
"It was the nurses that were like, 'let's see if we can just sit up today', or 'let's see if we could just do a little bit of Lego'. Just still seeing the human in him when he's so sick, it holds quite a special place in our hearts as a family," she said.
"It's the reason that Chase is still here. It's the reason that Chase had access to the care and equipment that he needed to live."
Major facelift after 35 years
Chase is one of thousands of children who have benefited from care at the Starship unit, which is now in a stronger position to help others after a major overhaul.
Its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is the only national service for children requiring intensive care for longer than 24 hours. Opened in 1991, it was in need of expansion. So, in 2021, the Starship Foundation put the call out to Kiwis for donations to fund the project.
Ultimately, it received $23 million from the public toward the total $48 million project. The other $25 million came from government funding.
The upgraded facility includes more beds, enhanced clinical technology, a dedicated high dependency unit, a new day-stay unit, expanded whānau areas, a state-of-the-art simulation suite and improved staff facilities.
Starship said the culmination of five years of construction has resulted in a space that was fit for purpose, with enough capacity to care for more than 150,000 children from across Aotearoa every year.
"Seventy-five to 80% of our children come from outside the Auckland region, because we are a national referral centre," PICU's nurse unit manager Nic Gini said.
"We are busy all the time. But without this expansion, we wouldn't have the capacity to actually manage the kids that we have," she said.
Starship chief executive Jo Simon said the transformation was only possible due to "extraordinary generosity".
"Many, many supporters, including individuals, trusts and partners, believed in what this expansion could achieve," she said.
"Every gift, large or small, helped create a space where more children can survive and thrive."
Gini said having different high dependency unit (HDU) areas meant that long term patients could be moved to a quieter environment away from "very busy, sick, noisy patients".
"Overall, it's just been an amazing experience for everybody, both staff and for whānau," she said.
"We'd just like to say thank you so much to everybody who's donated to the PICO expansion," Kelsi said.
"It's just an incredible place, and it's helped our child so much, and with the expansion, it's going to be able to help so many more children in New Zealand to live and to become healthy again and thrive."
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