Crucial funds have been raised to enhance services for patients and their families around the Sunshine Coast and Gympie.
More than $332,000 was donated in just 12 hours for the Wishlist Giving Day, exceeding the target of $200,000 by lunchtime.
This was achieved through public donations, doubled by Wishlist’s matched donors.
Wishlist CEO Brendan Hogan said the money raised would support local public hospitals and improve services.
“We are just so grateful to the thousands of people across the Sunshine Coast and Gympie, who dug deep to help Wishlist to help others,” he said.
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“The region’s health workers were particularly generous with teams across the service running their own fundraisers to contribute to the cause.
“The more than $332,000 raised by Wishlist Giving Day will go towards a biplane unit: the first clot retrieval service in our region, which will help stroke and brain aneurysm patients.”
Sunshine Coast Health medical director for rehabilitation Dr Elizabeth Grosso said the equipment would save lives and improve the quality of life for stroke survivors.
“To us, it’s the biggest deal since antibiotics were invented: it’s completely going to transform stroke care worldwide,” she said.
“It will allow us to see a clot in the brain in 3D in real time, so we can localise it, thread a catheter up through another blood vessel and get in there and suck the clot out.
“It allows the blood flow to be immediately restored to the brain and gives us the best chance of a really good outcome.”
Patients will soon be able to get the clot removed on the Sunshine Coast rather than having to be transported to Brisbane.
“We know we have about three hours before brain tissue starts to die,” she said.
“We have millions and millions of neurons dying every minute when that blood flow is obstructed, so we get really significant disability and a lot of impairments, the more hours the clot is untreated.
“If we can restore that blood flow, in many cases, you can just walk out of hospital the next day.”
The funds will also purchase a Sentimag and Faxitron machine, an essential piece of equipment that will offer local cancer patients less invasive, more effective treatments close to home.
Wishlist’s matched donors included Protector Aluminium, GVS Reliability Products, Sunshine Toyota, Exemplar Health, Habitat Development Group, Just Better Care and Heller Foundation.
