When baby Sam suffered heart failure due to two holes in his tiny heart, there was only one place for him to be.

PICU at Starship.

Starship has the country's only dedicated Paediatric Intensive Care Unit for New Zealand's most critically-ill babies and children.

PICU has wonderful staff. Superb equipment and provides extraordinary quality of care. 

What PICU does not have right now is a proper place for parents like Sam's. 

Over the last 10 years, the Parents' Room at PICU has been a place for thousands of mums and dads to sit, have a lie down or a private cry. The room is extremely tired, the furniture and fittings are worn, and it has become unsuitable as a place for deeply concerned and stressed parents to find any solace.

Please click here to send an urgent gift to help refurbish this vitally important room.

It's unthinkable that Sam's mum and dad wouldn't have a warm and comforting place to cope with the worst anxiety and the longest hours of their life.

After his emergency surgery, Sam was not simply sleeping, he was in an induced coma, because his heart could not hold its rhythm on its own. A pacemaker was keeping it beating. Sam was too fragile to even touch. 

It is exhausting for a parent to confront their worst fears like this, hour after hour. They need the Parents' Room as a sanctuary to escape to and cope with their overwhelming, exhausting emotions.

Please help us refurbish the room, to make it a warmer, more caring and comforting place to take a quiet moment.

When Sam woke up from his coma, he needed parents who were focused on his care, not shattered and completely drained. 

The staff will appreciate your gift so much too, because for a baby like Sam, they know his parents are a vital part of his intensive care.

Please click here and give parents of desperately ill children a place to rest and regain their strength for their child's sake.

A very special message of thanks from Sam's parents: