WILL YOU DONATE TODAY AND HELP MORE FAMILIES LIKE DOLLY'S?
If 100 supporters like you could give just £35, we could cover the cost of a lifesaving transfer mission.
MAKE A DONATION TODAY!
Can pay for childrens ear defenders to protect ears from our noisy rotors.
Could pay towards fuels for flying a child to the specialist care they deseperately need
Can pay towards oxygen to help critically ill children breathe
DOLLY'S STORY
When Dolly’s parents Alana and Jeff thought their baby girl wouldn’t make it, they were so grateful that the Children’s Air Ambulance was there to help her get the lifesaving medical care she needed.
Alana discovered she was pregnant at 19 weeks and just nine weeks later Dolly came into the world and was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Gloucester Royal Infirmary.
As well as having the usual problems associated with being born premature, Dolly went into acute liver failure. She became jaundice and her liver didn’t respond to treatment, so doctors decided to transfer her to King’s College Hospital, London for specialist treatment and neonatal care.
After five weeks in London, Dolly was able to return home and spend Christmas with her family. However, soon after she became unresponsive. “She went grey and floppy. We called 999 straight away. She was only taking ten very shallow breaths a minute and we were told she nearly went into cardiac arrest. I couldn’t believe it, during those terrifying moments, we thought our baby was gone.”
Thankfully, once paramedics arrived, Dolly started breathing again and was taken to Gloucester Royal Infirmary. She was put on life support, but the hospital didn’t have the right paediatric equipment to treat her, so she was rushed to Bristol Children’s Hospital by land ambulance.
The next 24 hours were critical. Dolly was in acute respiratory distress and had bronchiolitis. Her left lung had collapsed with only 30% functionality in her right lung. On top of this, she also had a bacterial chest infection, and her liver was failing again. She desperately needed to return to King’s College Hospital, London for specialist care.
This is where the Children’s Air Ambulance was able to help. Our helicopter picked Dolly and a specialist retrieval team from WATCh up and flew them to London. A journey that would have taken approximately 2 hours 40 minutes by road, took just 49 minutes by air. A few months later, Dolly was well enough to return home, and the Children’s Air Ambulance was there again to get them back safely and speedily.
The Children’s Air Ambulance is an amazing service, and we are so very grateful that it was there for our daughter twice. The charity needs donations to keep the helicopters flying and they deserve every penny they get.
Each of our journeys costs an average of £3,500. Keeping our helicopters in the air for just three minutes costs approx. £171. Could you donate this Christmas and help the Children’s Air Ambulance transfer more little lives nationwide.
Will you say ‘yes’ to keeping a child alive?
Our helicopters are flying intensive care units for babies and children. We are the only ones like this in the UK – and we urgently need your help.
If you’d like to donate on our regular giving
Regular gifts enable us to plan, giving us sustainable long-term income and are easily set up on our donate form. Payments come out once a month via Direct Debit and can be as little or as much as you choose, as any gift, no matter the size, help to keep our helicopters flying.
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Organise your own incredible challenge event, come to one of our fundraising dinners, or join an event and challenge yourself to help raise awareness and vital funds for our services