We live just around the corner from Grace Hospital, which is a private hospital.

Recently, my two-year-old son had a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. It all happened so suddenly he became unresponsive and convulsing in my arms. I knew time may have been a factor and the traffic was heavy at this time. After suffering from anaphylactic shock in the past I knew the seriousness of time factors and getting to the hospital even though I did not know what was wrong with him.

I made the decision to pull into Grace Hospital and ran in through the doors with my child. They put him on oxygen straight away and administered paracetamol and an intravenous line in him and checked his blood sugar. Shortly after he became alert and his little cry never sounded so joyful to my ears. Once he was stable they had us on an ambulance to Tauranga hospital and he is back at home with us now, a little tired but temperature normal.

I want to urge parents to not disregard a child's fever – things can go south really quickly and if it wasn't for Grace Hospital's prompt response and actions I don't know what could have happened.

I really would like to applaud and thank Grace Hospital, being a private hospital, for their willingness to help a desperate farther who came running into their doors. I said: ‘Send me the bill I'm happy to pay'. Their reply was: ‘Oh no no no don't you worry about that, we were glad we could help'. There's always bad news these days and I would love for our story to be published and Grace Hospital to be acknowledged. Their response and management of the situation was like a Formula 1 car rolling into the pit; they knew exactly how to handle things.

Jesse Shaw, Pyes Pa.