RAF mercy dash for premature twins on Scottish island
The Times
www.timesonline.co.uk
19th January 2009
A pair of twins born prematurely in the Outer Hebrides are reported to be in "very stable" condition after being airlifted on board a giant RAF transporter plane to a hospital on the Scottish mainland. The emergency rescue operation began when a woman on the island of Lewis who was 27 weeks pregnant with twins went into labour early last night and was taken to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway.

A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter, carrying medical staff and incubators, flew from Prestwick to Stornoway last evening to help to stabilise the very premature twins, a boy and a girl, according to a Scottish Ambulance Service supervisor.

As the weather conditions worsened during the evening, with high, blustery winds, it was judged too dangerous to use an air ambulance helicopter to transfer the babies to a maternity hospital in Glasgow, and instead a huge Hercules cargo plane was summoned from its base at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire to carry them in their incubators to the specialist neo-natal unit.

The aircraft touched down at Glasgow Airport at about 6.30am and the infants arrived at the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital in Glasgow within an hour.

Their mother did not accompany the babies on the flight and was in a stable condition at the Western Isles Hospital. She was expected to be transferred to Glasgow later by air ambulance.

First reports suggested that the condition of the babies was not promising, but this afternoon one of the doctors involved in the operation revealed that the prognosis for the pair was now felt to be good. Doctors were hoping that the infants' parents would join them later today.

"The babies are currently stable in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Princess Royal Maternity. They arrived here just after 7am this morning after being flown by the Neonatal Transport Service with the west of Scotland from the maternity unit in Stornoway," said Dr Lesley Jackson, a neonatal consultant.

"We’ve used the Hercules once before. Usually we would use the air ambulance but very poor weather meant we couldn’t use that.

"The Hercules was the only really reliable way of getting both babies back at the same time. We would imagine the babies will be in hospital until about their due date, so roughly ten or eleven weeks. A lot of that will be in special care, but certainly the first 72 to 96 hours are the most crucial and they are currently very stable. We would be very optimistic about the long-term outcome."

Earlier a superviser with the Scottish Ambulance Service had said that the consultants from the Princess Royal who travelled with the twins aboard the Hercules had done "as much as they could to keep the babies alive" during the flight, which was flown through heavy winds and rain to Glasgow Airport, but that their condition was thought to be "very poor".

The RAF said that the 24 Squadron Hercules crew comprising; Major Olly Luneau, Flt Lt Graham Prager and Loadmaster Sgt Jason Howard, plus support from squadron boss Wing Commander Andy Bacon, ground engineer Sergeant Ian Davies and two RAF medics, had been scrambled from RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire at 1am.

Air loadmaster Jason Howard, 23, received the call at home in Swindon. He said: "I was very surprised to get the call. It was my first day back from holiday and I was about to go to bed. This type of call is not what we expect but it is part of the job. It is out of the ordinary but very important to the community. It shows the lengths we will go to for the people of the UK."

The Hercules landed at Stornoway on Lewis about 90 minutes later. The plane set off again at 5.40am for the 40-minute flight to Glasgow. Major Luneau, a pilot with Armee de l'Air, the French air force, who is serving with the Royal Air Force on an exchange programme, said he had never experienced a mission quite like it. Learning that the children are said to be in a stable condition with a good prognosis, Maj Luneau said he was proud to have helped them. I will be checking their progress"

An RAF spokesman said: "Hopefully everyone working together will have given these babies the best possible chance. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We hope that this will have a happy ending. The Western Isles Health Board said that the twins' mother was in good health, and wanted to thank the medical teams in Stornoway and Glasgow.

Other Mercy Rescues:
Mercy rescue for infant more..
RAF makes Herculean effort to save life of newborn baby more..
Heart Transplant Emergency Mission more..
Emergency care baby's RAF flight more..