Rescue Trip: Babies onboard in specialist incubators. Pic: © Royal Navy
Twin premature babies born in the Western Isles are doing well following an epic nine hour air rescue operation.
The Royal Navy’s search and rescue unit at HMS Gannet in Prestwick had to battle severe winds to deliver a four-strong medical team and two special incubators to the side of the infants on Stornoway.
After receiving the call last Thursday evening, the crew raced to Glasgow Airport to pick up a specialist team from the Neo-natal Transport Service.
The extra 300kg weight added by the incubators coupled with headwinds of 30 knots required the helicopter to perform a running take-off from Glasgow and a refuel on Skye before arriving on Stornoway at 10.15pm.
The Glasgow neo-natal team worked along with their Stornoway counterparts to ensure the twins, who were born at 34 weeks, were stable.
They were then loaded onto the Sea King in their incubators, for return to Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital.
The helicopter completed its nine hour round trip when it landed in Glasgow at 3.20am on Friday.
The little boys, sons of Fiona and Peter McDonald, were born weighing just 2.22kg and 2.69kg respectively.
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The tiny pair have thrived over the weekend in the special care unit at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital where their parents have been by their side.
They said: “We are extremely grateful to everyone involved. “The babies are doing really well and we hope to be heading home later this week.”
Speaking about the long journey, pilot Lieutenant Andy Ellis said: “It’s a real pleasure to be able to help like this.
“After picking the team up from Glasgow Airport, we had some pretty tricky flying on the way up, with strong headwinds, heavy showers reducing visibility, low cloud base, and we had to go round islands for clearer conditions.
“But we tried to get through as quickly as possible. And the journey back down was much quicker and straight forward.
“It was a good result from our perspective and it’s great to hear that the babies are doing well, which is the most important thing. That’s what it was all about – a happy ending.”
HMS Gannet broke UK records with its 2009 statistics of 447 call outs and 378 people rescued.
