National Children’s Air Ambulance flies patient with heart-lung bypass from Cardiff to Leicester
The UK’s only helicopter transfer service for critically ill babies and children has recently completed a successful mission to transfer a patient with severe heart/lung failure from Cardiff to Leicester.
Early March the National Children’s Air Ambulance (NCAA) – working with a clinical team from University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust specialising in ECMO – made the 150-mile journey to the Leicester Glenfield Hospital in only 45 minutes.
ECMO stands for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation similar to the heart-lung bypass machine used for open heart surgery. The ECMO machine attaches to a bespoke patient transfer stretcher on board the NCAA helicopter and pumps blood outside of the body to remove carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-rich blood back to the patient.
Chris Bailey, NCAA Associate Director of Operations said: “Our helicopters are flying intensive care units. Purpose-built and clinically equipped so that we can fly critically ill children and babies and our Clinical Partner Teams who are providing the specialist care, to the hospitals best equipped to care for their condition.
“Each mission is never without risk – and that is particularly true with any ECMO transfer. The longer they’re in transit, the greater the danger. So, we work with some of the best NHS paediatric retrieval teams across the country. They bring their expertise. We bring the aircraft.
No Government funding
“We are a charity and don’t receive government or National Lottery funding – and with each mission costing around £5,500 we are grateful for every penny we receive which goes toward the next family in need of our help.”
NCAA Airdesk Coordinator Ben White added: “The service we delivered for the ECMO team is a great example of getting the intensive care patient to the expert care they needed in Leicester in just 45-minutes rather than nearly three hours by road.
“We continually problem solve and work with changing variables which can affect the outcomes of our missions. It means a lot to me to know that the patient and our crews got to where they needed to be as smoothly as possible.”
Chris Harvey, ECMO Consultant at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said: “For long-distance, high-risk transfers like this recent Cardiff example, it is great to have the assistance of the whole NCAA team. With only one quick and simple phone call to the Airdesk the whole NCAA team swings into action to deliver a seamless, professional response allowing us to focus solely on the patient. In cases like this the time saved in establishing lifesaving ECMO support can make a real difference to the patient outcome and ensure more babies can benefit from this advanced therapy”.
