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| News - Index - Herculean Effort for Baby - 14th January 2004 | ||||||||||||
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.” Group Captain Paul Oborn, RAF Lyneham's Station Commander said "RAF Lyneham is very proud to be involved in an operation such as this. Everyone who was involved ensured that the baby received the best treatment possible".
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