Couple raises money for hospital CuddleCot after losing their daughter
When Caitlin Collins David's daughter was stillborn last May, she and her husband Adam started fundraising for a CuddleCot, so that other Windsor parents dealing with the sudden loss of an infant would be able to grieve better.
Today, the pair was finally able to present Windsor Regional Hospital with the equipment they wish they had had when they lost their daughter Grace.
The CuddleCot is a bassinet with a cooling pad inside. It keeps the stillborn's body cold so that family can stay with the child for days or even weeks until the body is moved to a funeral home or morgue. Without the device, families have only only a few hours before the baby's body starts to deteriorate.
"Just like any parent when something unfortunate happens, you want that time for a funeral and things like that… with a baby you can't always do that. But this device allows you to do that," said Collins David.
Hospitals in larger urban centres like Toronto or Hamilton have CuddleCots. It's the first one for Windsor Regional Hospital.
"They've taught us something," said Gisele Seguin, director of public affairs for Windsor Regional Health. "It hopefully is a piece of equipment that gets used very little but when it does get used, it's going to be very important."
The special basket cost more than $6,000. It took Caitlin and David just over a year to raise the funds through family, friends and companies that were all willing to donate to their cause called "Gracie's Footprints".
