Grateful parents give Whangārei Hospital prem baby unit a warm gift

Alice Choi hands over one of the boxes of jumpsuits to healthcare assistant Melanie Thomas. Photo / Supplied

A generous donation of tiny clothes means there will be no shortage of premature jumpsuits in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Whangārei Hospital.

The large bundle of outfits was dropped off by a grateful family who said that without the support from the unit, their baby wouldn't be here today.

Little Eric Kim was born two months premature, at just 33 weeks and weighing only 2.3kg.

Eric's mother, Alice Choi, said he stopped breathing after an emergency caesarean but was brought back to life. He was kept stable thanks to the team of specialists and nurses in SCBU who cared for him for the first three-and-a-half weeks of his life.

"I was able to stay with Eric the whole time. As a new mother to a premature baby, I learned heaps and was very confident after I left SCBU,'' Choi said.

''We really wanted to say thanks to everyone in SCBU and do something to show our appreciation."

During their stay, the family noticed there was a shortage of jumpsuits and decided they could use their business, Kahvi Cafe, as a venue for a fundraising dinner.

Once word got out, the people of Whangārei were really supportive, Choi said.

Local businesses Cheapskates, K & K Clothing, Cotton on, Life Pharmacy Orrs and Gifts on Rathbone all donated items for gift baskets that were raffled off in the cafe.

A local pharmacist volunteered to waitress for the event and a chef from Auckland contributed her expertise to prepare the dinner. They even had ''customers'' as far away as Australia making cash donations towards the event.

Local artist Evan Heasman designed the poster for the dinner.

Around 20 people attended the "Tiny Life Support" dinner and, together with customers' donations and raffle proceeds, the Chois made a $645 profit which enabled them to buy 68 beautiful new premature jumpsuits for SCBU.

Eric is now 5 months old and weighs a healthy 6.7kg.

When he, his family and friends delivered the jumpsuits to the team, the nurses in the unit gathered around to see how well he had grown.

SCBU associate clinical nurse manager Merophy Brown said a gesture like this really highlighted the fact the public appreciates the work the unit does for them.

"We love doing what we do, but it is really nice to know that the Choi family have gone and done this off their own back and that they were able to raise so much money for our unit.

''We are really fortunate to be donated lots of items – which we often then give to our families on discharge, so it's really nice to get a whole lot of new sleepsuits being dropped off today."