Milestone birthday for Children's Air Ambulance

A HELICOPTER service is celebrating its first anniversary six months on from saving the life of a baby born prematurely in Grimsby.

The Children's Air Ambulance transferred Dominic Fuller from Grimsby's Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital back home to Portsmouth, after he had been born two months early.

Doctors recognised the need for Dominic to stay in hospital for many more weeks, but also knew that he and his parents would be best moved to a hospital nearer home.

So the helicopter took Dominic 225 miles down to the south coast where he was given life support in intensive care. Dominic stayed at hospital for several weeks before being brought home, where he has since made a full recovery.

Dominic's father Andy said: "The Children's Air Ambulance is an unbelievable service, we just couldn't believe it was there so quickly for Dominic.

"Speed was so important so there was no better way to get him home.

"It means everything to us to have our baby boy closer to home, at times like this you need the support network of your friends and family."

Since carrying out its first patient transfer on May 12, 2013, The Children's Air Ambulance has carried out 38 baby transfers and 31 clinician transfers.

With 95 per cent of paediatric care centralised to just a handful of hospitals across England and Wales, babies are often subjected to long and gruelling journeys by land to get the treatment they need.

The Children's Air Ambulance can carry out these hospital transfers four times faster than a journey by road.

All of this has been achieved without any government funding and solely through generous donations made by the public.

Andy Williamson, CEO of The Children's Air Ambulance, said: "Lots of babies, like Dominic, have benefited from our service over the last 12 months and we are becoming busier every month.

"As we are funded entirely by public donations, we urge everyone to spread the word and help keep hope alive for critically-ill children and their families."

The charity needs to raise £134,000 every month to keep its helicopter.

To find out more about The Children's Air Ambulance or to make a donation to the First Birthday Appeal, please visit www.thechildrensairambulance.org.uk/first birthday, or call 08454 130999.

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