Parents whose baby died from a heart defect have donated money to the hospital which treated her.

Rebekah Jane Vagg was just one day off eight weeks when she died from a major heart defect, which doctors had found ten days before.

Her mum and dad, Sally and Andy Vagg, of Thorpe Road, Kirby, saved all the money given as presents on her birth and donations they received at her funeral.

Just days after the first anniversary of her death, they revisited the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, to thank them for all they did. They also got to see what it had done with the £1,300 they gave the hospital in their daughter's name.

Mrs Vagg, 38, said: "I just did not want her life to go to waste. She was such a lovely little girl and she went through so much in such a small space of time."

Rebekah was born on April 4 last year and seemed a perfectly healthy baby.

The only symptoms she had was a cold she developed at four weeks.

When she developed respiratory problems, doctors gave her antibiotics but she became very poorly and was taken to Colchester General Hospital, where a chest X-ray revealed the serious defect.

Her mum said: "She went straight from Colchester to the paediatric intensive care unit at the Royal Brompton. She was just six weeks old."

Despite an operation and being put on a bypass, she died on May 29 last year.

Now the hospital which cared for her has 12 plaques in her memory on everything from two PlayStation consoles to a video machine and toys for young patients, paid for with money intended for her.

Mrs Vagg said: "It was her money not ours so it's only right. It was hard going back to the hospital but I'm glad we did it."

Published Friday, June 6, 2003

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