Fred and Melissa Platt suffered every parent’s worst nightmare when their beloved son Samuel died before his second birthday. Sam was born prematurely with a rare muscle myopathy.
He lived just shy of 16 months, but his short life sparked a revolution of sorts when his parents formed Footprints 4 Sam in 2017.
The charitable trust is currently fundraising for the entire renovation of the neonatal ICU at Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Coronationville, a legacy project worth over R80 million.
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One of the overarching aims of the charity is to try and prevent paediatric healthcare provider burnout and compassion fatigue to ensure that patients benefit from medical staff who have access to spaces and resources that enable them to work to the best of their abilities.
Melissa said, “Systemic issues like a lack of resources, entrenched hierarchies, staff having unhealthy coping mechanisms, gruelling shifts and non-human centred care all lead to a reduction in care which can have devastating consequences. In Sam’s case it meant our family is forever grieving the loss of our precious and only child.”
While understanding devastating experiences like theirs cannot be eradicated due to the numerous medical problems young lives may suffer, the Platts do believe that medical staff who treat the most vulnerable patients can only do so effectively, if they too are looked after.
Melissa said, “One key learning from our experience was that if health professionals are not addressing their emotional well-being daily, their sadness and trauma can impact a family in tragic ways. When patients and families are no longer treated like human beings and when health professionals don’t address their own ghosts and pain, patient outcomes are compromised, and everyone suffers.”
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One of the trust’s key areas is focused on coaching, support, and training in areas such as communication, burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, whole person care and palliative care. One of the ways this is achieved is through efforts which renovate key spaces in government hospitals by creating areas like bereavement and counselling rooms, rest and sleep rooms for staff, breastfeeding spaces and much more.
Melissa added, “All of these beautiful spaces aim to preserve the hearts of patients and families and those of the health professionals doing this lifesaving work.”
Aside from assisting healthcare professionals, Melissa runs support groups for parents and is a qualified life coach and, most importantly, a bereaved parent. Their groups cater for bereaved parents and for parents who are raising a child with a chronic condition. Melissa encourages parents to get in touch to ensure, ‘that nobody feels alone, but can instead be part of a community dealing with similar issues’,
Fundraising is done in several ways, the most notable being the World Giving Series using the hashtag #F4SAMWGS.
If you would like to learn more about Footprints 4 Sam, to donate or sponsor a sporting challenge, please visit their website www.footprints4sam.org or email Melissa Platt on melissa@footprints4sam.org
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