The pain Peter Cursley felt after the death of his newborn daughter was somewhat eased by the care and support it prompted him to give hundreds of parents and hospital staff in the past decade.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A comfy chair here, an extra breast pump there, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on neonatal intensive care cots.
It was an outpouring of hard work, generosity and compassion that emerged from personal tragedy after Mr Cursley and his late wife Susan were rushed to Canberra Hospital when their second daughter's home birth took a turn for the worst.
Little Hanna was blue when she was born and had to be revived.
"Over the next three or four days Hanna was looked after exceptionally well and the the care and compassion that was showed to us … our doctor, Dr Guan Koh, was handing us the tissues and he was using as many as we were," Mr Cursley said.
"We weren't just a number."
Hanna was taken off life support and died soon after but that support in the midst of overwhelming sadness and grief compelled Mr Cursley to act.
"I approached Guan Koh and said, 'You must have a wish list'. He said he did.
"But when I looked at it, the cost of many of the items was far more than I could ever give in a single donation.
"I thought the only way we can do this is if we get the community involved and see what we can raise."
That was 1993. Two years later, not long after Susan died after battling a brain tumour, Mr Cursley launched the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation to help fund equipment, training and research for newborn care in the region.
Mr Cursley was recognised for the organisation's efforts to raise more than $4 million for neonatal care in the past decade at a function at Canberra Womens' and Childrens' Hospital on Tuesday night.
He recalled the foundation's first donation was a few recliners for nursing mothers, followed by some extra breast pumps the foundation bought so new mums didn't need to queue to express milk.
That was followed by two neonatal intensive care cots fitted in an ambulance to provide emergency care to babies in rural and regional areas, which cost more than $200,000.
Mr Cursley said he was especially proud the foundation had bought an eye laser that could prevent blindness in babies who had received too much oxygen in intensive care and was previously only available in Sydney.
He said Tuesday's event was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the foundation and the ways it had helped countless families and hospital staff.
"It's all been part of the healing process. It's given a reason for what happened and turned a negative into a positive, which is always good."
