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Grateful Tamworth mum thanks local air ambulance for “saving my son’s life”
A grateful mum from Tamworth has donated £750 to the local air ambulance that flew her three-month-old son to Birmingham Children’s Hospital when he was struggling to breathe and needed specialist paediatric care.
Terri Slim says “The donation is nothing compared to the charity saving my son’s life back in November 2016.”
On that day, Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance responded to a 999 call from an urgent care centre in Tamworth.
Terri had taken her son Teddi there as he was very unwell and was having difficulty breathing.
Staff at the centre were worried that he may progress to suffer a cardiac arrest and called the emergency services.
Thankfully, this was not the case but Teddi clearly needed specialist care and so was airlifted to Birmingham Children’s Hospital with Terri accompanying him on the helicopter.
The flight took just five minutes compared with a road journey in a land ambulance of about half an hour with no traffic delays.
Traffic was stopped on the A38 in front of the hospital building to allow the air ambulance to land on the helipad.
Teddi spent two days on a ventilator in the intensive care unit before being transferred to Burton Hospital.
It was over a year – with frequent visits to the doctor and local hospitals – before Teddi was diagnosed with aspiration from dysphagia (breathing problems).
“He was very poorly for the first year of his life and kept losing weight. It was awful watching him as a baby. He was so weak and not able to do anything,” says Terri.
However, now aged 4, Teddi can eat solid foods normally and has a gastrostomy tube with a Mic-key button for fluids to go directly into his stomach.
He is an active little boy who loves to play with trains, cars and jigsaws and he attends a special needs school.
“He is a is a little terror in a good way and it’s great to see him healthy and wanting to eat,” says Terri.
When she received a pay-out from an insurance claim, she decided to make donations to the local air ambulance, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Ronald MacDonald charity.
“I wanted to thank everyone who helped Teddi and I can’t think of a better way of using the money,” she says.
