Rosabel’s living legacy

Lifestyle – After their 16-month-old daughter died suddenly in April 2017, Gary Monroe and Suzanne McClean channelled their grief into the charity Rosabel’s Rooms,  which helps other families in a similar situation. They talk to Judy Murphy

Suzanne McClean and Gary Monroe knew from the day she was born that their daughter Rosabel – Beautiful Rose – was special.  Born on January 5, 2016, a baby sister for their gorgeous son Ruben, she was “the icing on the cake” of their happy family.

Suzanne used to ask her baby girl ‘where did you come from?’ and ‘were you here before?’, and says that while all parents rightly think their babies are special, there was something unique about Rosabel, who connected with everyone she met during her short life.

And Rosabel’s life on this earth was all too short. At just 16 months, the toddler who had been perfectly healthy, passed away in her cot at home in Mincloon, Galway City. Her death was classified as a Sudden Unexplained Death Sin Early Childhood (SUDEC). It’s similar to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome but in older children.

Gary was at work the evening Rosabel stopped breathing at their home on April 2017 – he and his brother Rob run the renowned Monroe’s Bar and music venue.

“I called Gary to get an ambulance, but he got her before it and we raced to the hospital,” recalls Suzanne softly of that awful evening.

The care Rosabel and her parents received in UHG from Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Donough O’Donovan and the staff was brilliant. But the facilities for parents in a time of such unspeakable distress were bad.

“There was an area off the Resuscitation Room in the Emergency Department and we spent the night in there with her,” they recall.

The medics had tried everything to resuscitate little Rosabel, but it was too late.

“She had died at home, but they worked on her very hard to try and save her,” says Suzanne. “She was pronounced dead after midnight and we stayed with her, in that small space, until after lunch the following day.”

Even through their grief and shock, Suzanne and Gary realised that better facilities were needed for parents and families going through such tragedy.

And so, the idea of Rosabel’s Rooms, a charity providing support to other families in a similar situation, took seed. It was launched the following January on what would have been Rosabel’s second birthday.  Run in conjunction with the Irish Hospice Foundation, it has three aspects.

The first is the development of Bereavement Rooms in hospitals to offer families a private, safe space when a child is dying. The second is financial support for what can be a cripplingly expensive as well as a deeply traumatic time.  And the third is a paid-for counselling service, with accredited psychologists and psychotherapists. Suzanne, a psychologist, works with the Galway Rape Crisis Centre and knows the value of counselling.

For more, read this week’s Tribune.

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