trailfinder
14th Jan 2004, 16:37
Now this might make a better recruitment ad....
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RAF makes Herculean effort to save life of newborn baby
By Simon de Bruxelles
The Times 14/01/04
IT CAN carry 220 tonnes of freight but yesterday the RAF Hercules transport aircraft’s most precious cargo weighed just six pounds.
As gale force winds and ice grounded civilian aircraft, the Hercules flew a four-day-old boy from Swansea to Glasgow for life-saving treatment.
The mission began when doctors at Singleton Hospital in Swansea said that the tiny baby, who was suffering from a severe lack of oxygen because his lungs were not working properly, would die without specialist treatment.
Only four British hospitals have the facilities and every unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, in London, to which the baby would have been transferred, was occupied.
Space was found at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, in Glasgow, 350 miles away. But on a stormy night, with the air ambulance and RAF rescue helicopters grounded, there seemed to be no way to get him there.
So the RAF agreed to scramble a Tristar to fly two doctors and a paediatric nurse and their equipment from Glasgow to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Meanwhile, the giant Hercules military transporter was flown from RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire to Brize Norton and was waiting on the tarmac to pick them up.
It then took off for Cardiff airport, from where the medical team travelled the 40 miles by road to Swansea. They spent several hours stabilising the baby before returning to Glasgow in the Hercules.
The aircraft touched down at about 10am, with paramedics standing by to transfer the baby to an incubator before taking him to Yorkhill in a special neonatal ambulance. Last night he was receiving emergency treatment on an extra-corporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO) machine to help him to breathe.
The baby’s parents, from Bridgend in South Wales, flew up separately to be at their son’s bedside.
Ryan Parry, a spokesman for the hospital, said: “He is in a serious but stable condition.” It was too early to say how long he would need to remain connected to the machine.
While the number of children needing ECMO is very small, in cases of acute heart and lung failure the treatment can be life-saving. ECMO is most often used to treat babies and small children suffering from conditions where their own organs are unable to cope, such as severe respiratory failure caused by underdeveloped lungs, or blood poisoning. Using the machine to take over the functions of the child’s heart and lungs , it allows the body time to gain strength.
Mr Parry said: “There is no shortage of ECMO machines as such, it’s just a very specialised area of medicine. The equipment is expensive and the medical staff need special training, so the four centres that offer the treatment work as a network.”
Huw Williams, divisional general manager at Singleton Hospital, said that the bad weather had caused difficulties. “The baby needed specialist ECMO treatment . . . we were very grateful to Glasgow. A team flew down early on Tuesday morning and it was quite a flight for them given the gales and rain.”
Flight Lieutenant Barry Searle, of RAF Kinloss in Scotland, said: “It was a big task involving a great deal of organisation. The urgency of the case required exceptional measures to get the baby to hospital in Glasgow quickly.”:ok: :ok: :ok:
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RAF makes Herculean effort to save life of newborn baby
By Simon de Bruxelles
The Times 14/01/04
IT CAN carry 220 tonnes of freight but yesterday the RAF Hercules transport aircraft’s most precious cargo weighed just six pounds.
As gale force winds and ice grounded civilian aircraft, the Hercules flew a four-day-old boy from Swansea to Glasgow for life-saving treatment.
The mission began when doctors at Singleton Hospital in Swansea said that the tiny baby, who was suffering from a severe lack of oxygen because his lungs were not working properly, would die without specialist treatment.
Only four British hospitals have the facilities and every unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, in London, to which the baby would have been transferred, was occupied.
Space was found at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill, in Glasgow, 350 miles away. But on a stormy night, with the air ambulance and RAF rescue helicopters grounded, there seemed to be no way to get him there.
So the RAF agreed to scramble a Tristar to fly two doctors and a paediatric nurse and their equipment from Glasgow to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Meanwhile, the giant Hercules military transporter was flown from RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire to Brize Norton and was waiting on the tarmac to pick them up.
It then took off for Cardiff airport, from where the medical team travelled the 40 miles by road to Swansea. They spent several hours stabilising the baby before returning to Glasgow in the Hercules.
The aircraft touched down at about 10am, with paramedics standing by to transfer the baby to an incubator before taking him to Yorkhill in a special neonatal ambulance. Last night he was receiving emergency treatment on an extra-corporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO) machine to help him to breathe.
The baby’s parents, from Bridgend in South Wales, flew up separately to be at their son’s bedside.
Ryan Parry, a spokesman for the hospital, said: “He is in a serious but stable condition.” It was too early to say how long he would need to remain connected to the machine.
While the number of children needing ECMO is very small, in cases of acute heart and lung failure the treatment can be life-saving. ECMO is most often used to treat babies and small children suffering from conditions where their own organs are unable to cope, such as severe respiratory failure caused by underdeveloped lungs, or blood poisoning. Using the machine to take over the functions of the child’s heart and lungs , it allows the body time to gain strength.
Mr Parry said: “There is no shortage of ECMO machines as such, it’s just a very specialised area of medicine. The equipment is expensive and the medical staff need special training, so the four centres that offer the treatment work as a network.”
Huw Williams, divisional general manager at Singleton Hospital, said that the bad weather had caused difficulties. “The baby needed specialist ECMO treatment . . . we were very grateful to Glasgow. A team flew down early on Tuesday morning and it was quite a flight for them given the gales and rain.”
Flight Lieutenant Barry Searle, of RAF Kinloss in Scotland, said: “It was a big task involving a great deal of organisation. The urgency of the case required exceptional measures to get the baby to hospital in Glasgow quickly.”:ok: :ok: :ok: