Firstly i would like to introduce myself, my name is Paul Valentine and i am a member of the South Wales RS Owners Group and also of the RSOC. I would also like to thank you all in advance for reading my story.

On April 9th 2012 my seven year old grandson, Luke Paul Jenkins, sadly passed away. He was born with major heart defects and had to under go numerous operations throughout his life to sustain a decent quality of life. His last operation was on March 30th 2012 at the Bristol Childrens Hospital, where he under went a five hour operation, this was to be his last stage of operations for him until at some stage he would have needed to be put onto the heart transplant list.

His operation was a complete success on the day and he came around and was later moved to the intensive care unit which all cardiac patients do.Considering what was done to him he showed good signs of improvement quite quickly, something he has done in the past on previous operations, that's kids for you!! A few days later he was taken back to theatre as he had an internal bleed and an extra drain had to be fitted, again this went well and he seemed to be responging and on the road to a full recovery.

On the Good Friday we received a phone call from my daughter explaining that Luke had a massive internal bleed and was being rushed back to theatre, as you can imagine this was our worst night-mare and unfortunately more was to follow. By the time we got to Bristol he had been worked on the ward for over forty three minutes, before being taken back to theatre. A doctor then came in and explained that due to the lack of blood and oxygen to the vital organs they did not expect him to pull through this, but he did.

Needles to say at this point we thought that he was going to be fine and that this time it was going to take him a lot longer to get over this one. They told us that the next twenty four hours would be crucial and to expect that he may deteriate due to what had happend to him. The intensive care staff worked around the clock and we have to say that they were fantastic with him and also showed us all there compassion throughout this ordeal, for this we are truely greatfull.

Sadly to say late Sunday night, after a long battle a decision had to be made as further complications had arisen and that his quality of life was slowly fading, so after us all saying our good-byes to him his life support was slowly removed and he peacefully passed away in the early hours of the Monday.

We know that no words can explain how we are all feeling and that being here for each other is a form of help and comfort, this is why in one respect i am writing this piece as it does help to talk. I am also attaching some links to this page, one of which is a link to a charity page that we have set up in honour of his name, i am not asking for people to give, but if you are able even if its just a pound then this would be really apprciated. We are also going to do a fund raiser in November which is the month of his birthday, to raise money for various charities that helped our Luke throughout his life, basically a thank-you to everyone that helped him through his seven wonderful years.

Again many thanks to all that read this story.

www.lukejenkins.co.uk

Links: www.justgiving.com/mandi-valentine
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiff...91466-30848139

 

Very sad to read this and my thoughts go out to u and your family. I will click on the link and make a donation.

 

same here, my thoughts go out to all concerned.