Emily was 3 when she caught a common cold, and it quickly became life-threatening. She needed specialist care fast, so doctors at Gisborne Hospital called the Starship national air ambulance.<\/p>\n
Emily and her mother, Marion Rogers, were flown to Starship.<\/p>\n
A little over a year later, Emily caught RSV \u2013 a common childhood respiratory infection \u2013 and took a serious turn for the worse. One of her lungs collapsed.<\/p>\n
The air ambulance team were again called to take her to Starship\u2019s paediatric intensive care unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose two flights saved her life by getting her to Starship in time,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cWithout them, Emily wouldn\u2019t be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Emily needing frequent medical care at Starship, her family made the difficult decision to relocate from Gisborne to Auckland so they could be closer to Starship\u2019s specialist care.<\/p>\n
She will be spending this Christmas at Starship, and while her family would prefer to be at home, they said the kindness of strangers and hospital staff helps bring some magic to her time in hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year she came away feeling very special, with memories of the ward decorations and a visit from Santa,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas should be full of joy and togetherness, but for some families, they will be spending Christmas in Starship,\u201d said Starship Foundation chief executive Jo Simon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur campaign is a reminder that behind every empty chair is a child fighting to get well, and that New Zealanders have the power to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those travelling this festive season, a powerful Starship photo gallery is now on display at Auckland Airport\u2019s domestic and international terminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe images offer an intimate look into the lives of families spending Christmas in hospital, bringing the campaign\u2019s message into one of the country\u2019s busiest holiday touchpoints,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
\u201cAirport staff will also be collecting donations on behalf of Starship, giving travellers an easy way to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
The photo gallery features images of empty chairs representing children who are away from their families at Christmas, including Emily\u2019s.<\/p>\n
A photo of Emily Rogers’ empty chair is one of several such pictures on display at Auckland Airport. The chairs are a reminder that behind every empty chair is a child fighting to get well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to the generosity and compassion of everyday New Zealanders, the Starship Foundation has generated more than $250 million for Starship, our national children\u2019s hospital, since 1992, helping to ensure all children in Aotearoa New Zealand have access to world-class healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily was 3 when she caught a common cold, and it quickly became life-threatening. She needed specialist care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2325,3471,1975,111280,51,682,2511,4749,18399,111278,1872,2109,2740,6868,13838,12506,134,527,2241,78,10933,12514,5829,111279,111,139,69,27916,14040,41114,5147,3755,61,1533,102],"class_list":["post-172382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-2325","tag-among","tag-at","tag-atrophy","tag-auckland","tag-being","tag-child","tag-childrens","tag-christmas","tag-exgisborne","tag-face","tag-family","tag-former","tag-girl","tag-girls","tag-gisborne","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-in","tag-injured","tag-leave","tag-many","tag-muscular","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sick","tag-spend","tag-spinal","tag-starship","tag-third","tag-to","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}