“If SCAA hadn’t been there, it could have been a completely different story – flying to the mainland helped save my baby’s life.”
Eilidh, from North Uist, was 34 weeks into her third pregnancy when a routine midwife appointment at her local hospital revealed a worrying test result.
“They discovered at the appointment that my blood pressure was sky high,” says the 34-year-old.
“After blood tests I was advised to go to Stornoway to get a Doppler ultrasound scan to check the blood flow between my placenta and the baby.”
Alongside her husband, Eilidh took the ferry and travelled to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway.
While her blood flow remained stable, her blood pressure was extremely high and a cause for concern for her and her unborn child.
It was confirmed that Eilidh had preeclampsia (a serious pregnancy complication which causes high blood pressure).
“I had been feeling really unwell for days, mainly suffering from bad headaches and vomiting…I was just feeling horrible,” she reflects.
“The risk with preeclampsia is that you can get seizures, and it can cause a stroke. It also affects organ function so you can go into organ failure – the doctors were monitoring my liver and kidney function because of this. Effectively, if it’s not treated it can kill you.”
Blood pressure tablets had also failed to bring her back to a healthy level. The only known cure for preeclampsia is to deliver the baby prematurely. Due to this, and the fact that there is no dedicated special care baby unit at Western Isles Hospital, the decision was made that Eilidh had to get to mainland hospital care.
“If I had needed to go quickly into labour while at hospital in Stornoway, they would have had to airlift my baby straight after the birth and most likely sperate us,” she explains.
Thanks to donations from the Scottish public, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) was available to airlift Eilidh and her unborn child to the specialist facilities they desperately needed.
Crew from SCAA’s Aberdeen base transferred her from Stornoway to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness in just 40 minutes.
“It was my first time in a helicopter,” Eilidh, who works as a high school teacher, confesses.
“The fact that the air ambulance helicopter was involved did give a sense that this was an urgent situation that we were in. I think I was in quite a bit of shock throughout the experience, and I kept thinking about my two boys that I was leaving behind.
“But I remember the air ambulance paramedics made me feel at ease. Everything was all very calm and controlled. They never made me feel like it was a total emergency, and they kept me relaxed throughout the process. My blood pressure continued to be monitored throughout the flight, which felt very quick.”
The crew ensured the mother-to-be received a SCAA teddy as a present for her unborn child.
Eilidh delivered baby Seòras soon thereafter, and both were able to make it home just in time for Christmas where his two big brothers, Findlay and Hamish, met him for the first time.
“I’d like to thank the crew for being so calm and warm – and for Seòras’ teddy which still sits in his cot with him,” says Eilidh.
“Growing up on Uist, you hear the air ambulance all the time on the islands…it has always been absolutely vital here. We’re so lucky to have this resource.”
