This is the story of Billie who initially was seen in Cornwall on the children’s ward and HDU before being transferred to Bristol PICU. Billie’s Mum has shared their family’s experience.
Our daughter Billie was taken into Treliske hospital in Cornwall with suspected bronchiolitis, she had been admitted a few weeks previously with the same symptoms so we thought we would spend a few days on the ward with some oxygen support before being sent home. Unfortunately, Billie went downhill quickly, just 48 hours after being admitted various high flow oxygen machines had been tried but she was unable to sustain her breathing on her own and the decision was made to sedate her and put her on a ventilator. There is no children’s ICU in Cornwall so the WATCh team were sent from Bristol to pick her up and transport her to Bristol Children’s Hospital PICU. Once she had been sedated Billie was looked after on the Adults ICU ward whilst we waited for the WATCh team to arrive. The team arrived at 11pm and by 5am they had safely made the ambulance transfer to Bristol. After 4 days in PICU Billie was weaned off the ventilator and was able to breath on her own with the help of oxygen. On day 6 Billie was well enough to be transferred back to Cornwall, due to the distance and the fact Billie was now only requiring the use of free flow oxygen the WATCh team made the decision to fly us back to Cornwall. We were told at 10am that Truro had a bed for her, by 1pm watch had made all the arrangements and we were transported to meet the helicopter. 1:30pm we took off and by 2:45pm we landed in Truro.
The way WATCh looked after our little girl is something we will be forever grateful for. Meeting the crew who were going to be transporting her to Bristol filled us with hope that she was going to get there safely. It was the most terrifying journey we have ever made but I felt at ease that she was in the best care that she could be. The team were so reassuring, answered any questions we had and were so compassionate about the situation we were in. The crew who flew us back to Cornwall were much the same, it was a very different situation but still full of emotion and worry as to how our girl would cope with the journey. The crew were amazing throughout the flight and constantly checked in on Billie and also myself. Landing back in Cornwall is a moment I will never forget, getting our girl back on Cornish land and another step closer to going home to her twin sister was an incredible feeling and something that WATCh had helped enable us to do.