Behind the scenes, the engineers on base, rapidly
prepared a suitable aircraft for this vital task and was on
standby awaiting dispersal instructions. In the meantime the
coordinating control cell, based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland,
contacted the Headquarters Tactical Medical Wing at Lyneham,
to ensure all the euipment and Flight Nursing Attendant was
available to accompany the child during the flight.
In the very early hours of the morning, at 0230hrs, a C130J
Hercules launched into the Wiltshire skies en route for East
Midlands Airport to pick up a team of Medical Specialists
for the return journey. A short time on the ground the giant
transport aircraft departed East Midlands Airport for fog
bound Cork International Airport.
At 0435hrs the aircraft arrived at Cork, the specialist medical
team departed for the hospital to collect the ailing baby
girl while the aircraft crew and engineers prepared for the
return flight.
An hour before the winter sun was due to rise above the
south east Ireland horizon, the aircraft departed Cork
Airport with the fragile infant on board in the safe hands
of a highly trained air transport medical team. The family
travelled with the newborn who was placed in a high-tech incubator.
Weather conditions were bleak, thick fog, very cold. Lowest
temperatures were between - 1°C and + 2°C. The aircraft
landed at East Midlands airport at 0730hrs and the Medical
Team speedily transferred the sick infant to the hospital
in Leicester. The baby was being taken to a spare Extra Corporeal
Membrane Oxygenation unit at Glenfield Hospital which can
take over the breathing of young babies with difficulties,
enabling the lungs to develop normally.
This story is remarkably similar to the rescue mission, again
carried out by Lyneham crews, for a baby with breathing difficulties
in January 2004 more..
The Glenfield Hospital is situated in spacious grounds on
the north-west of Leicester, three miles from the City centre
and 3 miles from the M1 motorway. It is the third and newest
Hospital in Leicestershire.
The Glenfield Hospital is one of the few centres in the United
Kingdom with an established ECMO (Extra-Corporeal Membrane
Oxygenation) programme for both adult and paediatric patients
and it is the most successful centre in the world using the
ECMO procedures. The hospital has its own helipad to allow
rapid access for helicopters carrying emergency patients to
the hospital. Foggy weather conditions last night meant the
medical evacuation of the baby could not be carried out by
a rescue helicopter.
It is without the true professionalism, consistently displayed
by the Armed Forces, that these acts of mercy, that another
person is airlifted to critical medical care. In the last
couple of years we have recorded many of the other mercy missions
carried out by the Wiltshire airbase. See the links to the
left. |
