Stephen chanell's home has been the children's Intensive Care unit at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital for the last six weeks.

The 17-year-old was brought to the hospital's paediatric ward after an operation to remove a cyst from his spinal chord.

He is hooked up to monitors and at the moment is only able to nod his head in answer to questions after the operation left him with titanium rods running from his skull down to his spine.

Services for patients like Stephen will soon be improved, thanks to a Government cash injection of £484,500 to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals' NHS Trust. The majority of the windfall will go to the John Radcliffe Hospital, but patients will also reap the rewards at the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

Dr Emily Williams, trust clinical director of paediatric intensive care, welcomed the new money on the ward yesterday. She said that £150,000 of the money would be used to fund an extension to the unit in the autumn, extendng the number of beds from six to eight.

The unit looks after children, from new born up to 16, and enjoyed a similar cash boost last year of around £250,000.

Dr Williams said: "This year's money is going to be used to consolidate a lot of developments that started last year.

"Then we were able to expand from four beds to six beds and recruit nursing staff. Some of this year's money is going to go to rebuilding. We are going to push the wall further out to expand to up to eight beds.

"We are hoping for the same sort of money next year."

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