Ashleigh Morrison thanks Scottish Ambulance crew after baby daughter found struggling to breathe

A mother has thanked ambulance crews who raced to help her baby daughter after she was found struggling to breath during the night.

Ashleigh Morrison was at home in Dumbarton on May 7 when little Billie Moss began to struggle to breathe at 2.30am.

The 31-year-old said: “I was woken by a strange movement coming from Billie’s baby monitor and when I went into my room, I knew it was something to do with her mouth, but I couldn’t figure out what.

“When I lifted her up, that’s when I realised she couldn’t breathe and it looked like she was choking – there was no noise, no coughing.”

The ten-month-old looked pale and had a slight tinge to her lips and not knowing what to do, Ashleigh said she “threw her over her shoulder” before calling 999.

The terrified mum was supported by call handler Andrew McNicoll, who she described as “excellent”.

Billie Moss was found struggling to breathe by her mum Ashleigh. Email

“The first thing I said was ‘I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing by phoning you because she has literally just taken a breath and I’m really concerned’. He advised me it was fine, you have absolutely done the right thing, let me take this information,” she said.

“He told me not to do what I had initially done again after taking the relevant information and he advised me on what I should do, going forward should that happen again.”

Vale of Leven ambulance crew Carol Mackie and Tracy Dickson arrived within ten minutes of the call and quickly got to work on baby Billie to ensure she was ok.

“I was really impressed with how quickly the ambulance got here,” Ashleigh said.

“When the paramedics arrived, they were super reassuring, taking her observations, vitals and things like that, and making sure I was okay. They were also trying to reassure me to make me feel better; by this point I was really panicked.

“They made what was the scariest time of my life somewhat easier to deal with and I am beyond grateful for the amazing job they do. They really are a credit to the Scottish Ambulance Service.”

Call handler Andrew McNicoll helped keep Ashleigh calm. Email

Luckily baby Billie is now on the mend and call handler Andrew said he was delighted to hear the good news.

He said: “It is so nice to hear there was a happy ending to what must have been a very worrying time for the family.

“There will be stories similar to Ashleigh and Billie’s on each and every call handlers shift that we never hear the outcome of so receiving feedback like this is a fantastic reminder of the reasons that we all do the job that we do.”