IT WAS like Christmas for Euan Burke when he finally went home this weekend and saw his bedroom and toys for the first time in his life.

The little lad has so far spent all of his 19-month lifetime living on hospital wards because, without a 24-hour specialist healthcare team available to monitor him at his Fordingbridge home, doctors cannot discharge him.

But for six precious hours the toddler was allowed to be taken from Southampton General Hospital to his home in Diamond Close by parents Ellie Noke and Chris Burke to enjoy the simple things in a toddler's life - playing with his toys and enjoying a trip to the park.

Euan suffers from cardiac and lung problems and needs to be attached to specialist machinery at all times to help him breathe.

But on Saturday a home care team was finally able to provide this suction unit equipment so that the toddler could see his own four walls for once.

He did however have to return to his hospital home in the evening.

Ellie said: "It is wonderful to have him home, even if it's just for a few hours.

"He has two sets of toys - one lot at the hospital and another here and we swap them round occasionally. At home he saw the toys and thought they were all new.

"Hopefully now, with this equipment here, he can come back more often."

Ellie and Chris both gave up their jobs running a pub to devote their time to Euan. Unable to afford to run a car, they now have to endure endless bus trips to and from Southampton General Hospital.

An urgent appeal has been launched by private healthcare firm Clinovia to find a team of nurses and healthcare support workers that would finally allow Euan to go home for good.

Representatives will be at Blandford Job Centre on Tuesday and Bournemouth's on Thursday.

Spokesman Alan Rustad said: "His mother Ellie currently travels to see him in hospital every day, a difficult task without her own transport, and not surprisingly it makes family life very difficult.

"It would be so much better if the team can be recruited."

Euan's breathing equipment can be carried on the back of his buggy.

He is fed five times a day with milk syringed into a tube attached to a button on his belly, allowing the liquid to go straight into his stomach.

Euan receives six different medicines a day using this method.

No one can say what the future holds for him, but it is hoped that he will be able to manage without his breathing tube by the age of six.

First published: May 23