A local mum from Birmingham has thrown her support behind a fundraising appeal to bring a state-of-the-art MRI scanner to Birmingham Women’s Hospital for the first time, after a traumatic experience when her daughter was born.
Rebecca Banks was 19 years old when she gave birth to her daughter, Ella. While recovering from an emergency C-section at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, she suddenly lost the ability to speak, and so doctors ordered an urgent MRI brain scan. Because there was no MRI scanner on site, the next day Rebecca had to be discharged from the Women’s Hospital and admitted to the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth Hospital for her scan, temporarily separating her from her newborn baby and partner, Stuart.
Following her scan, Rebecca was readmitted to the Women’s Hospital. Fortunately, MRI results came back all clear and she regained her speech, returning home with her daughter after two days of being monitored by doctors. While she is relieved nothing was more seriously wrong, she still recalls the stress of travelling alone to an unfamiliar hospital for her MRI appointment, while in pain from having given birth, and the anxiety of being separated from her newborn child and partner, who stayed with the baby.
Keen to help other women in similar situations, Rebecca has backed Birmingham Women’s Hospital Charity’s MRI Appeal, which intends to raise £1.5m to build an innovative MRI suite at the hospital, with a high-tech MRI scanner, for the very first time.
As one of only two dedicated women’s hospitals in the UK, approximately 1,300 women and babies at Birmingham Women’s Hospital need an MRI scan as part of their diagnosis and treatment each year. This includes women with gynaecological conditions, pregnant patients going through complicated pregnancies, and poorly babies on the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit needing a scan to help diagnose cardiac and brain injuries.
With no scanner on site, around 60% of these patients currently wait longer than six weeks for their scan, and have to travel to the next closest site with an MRI appointment available, which can cause stress and have a financial impact. By raising £1.5m for the MRI scanner, the charity will be able to help improve patient experiences and outcomes.
Rebecca said: “It would have been so much smoother and easier to have had my MRI scan in the same hospital. I would have been kept nearer to my baby and my partner, saving a lot of heartache and stress.
“When you’ve received such scary news and you’ve already been through a difficult birth, any kind of travelling is just too much. That’s why I massively support this appeal.”
Matt Boazman, chief executive officer for Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Having an MRI scanner on site at our hospital will make a massive difference to the service we can provide our women and babies. As a dedicated women’s hospital, many women and pregnant families will come to us for specialist care they are unable to get at their local hospital, yet the fact we are unable to offer them a scan on site far from ideal.
“Bringing an MRI to our hospital will create more capacity to scan our patients, but most importantly, it will help to provide answers many of our women and families are agonisingly waiting for and provide our teams with the information they need to create the best treatment plans.”
A founding gift of £500,000 from The Lounge Foundation has already been received for the appeal, with the charity’s corporate partners and major donors working together collectively to raise an additional £500,000, meaning there’s a final £500,000 to raise from the public to reach the £1.5m target.
To accommodate the MRI scanner, the hospital will expand the footprint of its ground floor and create a dedicated MRI suite. The new suite will include the latest model MRI scanner, a control room and reporting room for scans to be analysed. To support the MRI service, a new waiting room and lobby, plus changing facilities, will also be built.
To find out more about the £1.5m MRI Appeal or donate, please visit: bwh.org.uk/mri