AS EVERY parent knows, there is nothing worse than when one of your children gets badly ill. In a fevered heartbeat there is a sudden realisation that nothing else matters except getting them better.

Thankfully, few parents have to go through anything like the agonies recounted over the past week or so by the mums and dads of local children who have been treated by the children’s cardiac unit at Southampton Hospital.

Their experiences have been both harrowing and, ultimately, heart-warming as, against tremendous odds, babies, toddlers and teenagers are brought back to health through the tremendous skill, professionalism and care of this highly-respected medical unit.

As their tales have been told, one element has shone through: a bond of trust between hospital and patient is a vital part of that care.

Breaking that bond by closing the unit would be a savage blow not just for the patients who have huge respect for the unit’s surgeons, doctors and nurses but for the parents and families who are part of their support network.

It is also clear that simply transferring the service to another hospital, potentially hundreds of miles away, will not be a simple matter of adjustment. Relationships developed with doctors over years of painstaking care cannot be reconstructed overnight.

That relationship works both ways. A pile of medical documents, scans and historical notes cannot replace the knowledge a surgeon has of a patient he or she has examined and operated on over many years.

For Channel Islanders there is the added factor of our relative isolation. From the very first frantic medical flight with a seriously sick child through to trips for life-threatening operations and then countless routine check-ups the strain on everyone involved is huge.

In such circumstances, Southampton is the best option for islanders. It is close, there is a good network of flights to its airport and a special wing on site where parents can stay.

The Guernsey Press is proud to support the Southern Daily Echo newspaper in its campaign on behalf of parents and patients across the country to keep this unit open.