Police chopper airlifts ‘preemie’ to hospital
RCIPS helicopter at Cayman Brac airport
(CNS): A premature baby born on Cayman Brac who needed immediate specialist care was airlifted to the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town on Wednesday by the police helicopter. Faith Hospital staff contacted the RCIPS Air Operations Unit at 2:00 in the morning as the baby was about to be born, as medical professionals knew he would need immediate transfer to the intensive care unit. The police helicopter crew answered the emergency call-out and picked up the baby, who was born at 2:25am, along with a critical care nurse and flew them to Grand Cayman.
“This was an exceptional call,” said AOU Commander Steve Fitzgerald, who was part of the crew. “The baby had not been born when we got the call-out, and was less than two hours old when ready to transfer. It was a special moment seeing him sleeping in the incubator on the flight across.”
Police confirmed that the baby is currently doing well.
Category: Health, Medical Health
However many millions were spent on this helicopter it was well worth it even just for this one life.
6:47 mi dear have you even been to the Brac ever? We have a proper hospital.
Maybe we have a smaller budget and that is ok. We are just 1,000 or so people. We are thankful for our hospital. Some places have no hospital.
Thank you Dr. V for pushing so hard for the helo landing pad behind the hospital.
Helicopter and crew earning their keep again! great job to all involved
What would Faith Hospital done in a case like this before the helicopter was available?
They would have waited on a plane in order to fly the patient out.
Why won’t the government take their big surplus money and invest in a proper hospital for Cayman Brac?
Many people have had bad things to say about this helicopter, but i am here to tell you this is and has proven to be, one of the most valuable services/resources these islands has ever had!
Some people have had bad things to say in the past, I would argue not that many. But you are so right, and on so many levels. And we probably don’t even know half of it. It takes a special kind of professionals to rush out and do this kind of job. Well done.
The objection remains, and is more pertinent than ever as they begin to talk of adding a, or replacing the, helicopter: it must be properly laid out what the helicopter is for and shown that what they are getting is value for money. You will recall that the current helicopter when first purchased was not supposed to be flown between the islands and was not to be used for medical emergency response. Now, several retrofits later, its what they promote the most out of it.
This or some new helicopter may or may not be the right tool for the right jobs. But we can’t know that without first agreeing on what the jobs are we want done. Part of the argument against the current helicopter was that there were jobs – like bringing sick kids from the Brac to Grand – which it wasn’t specified to be able to do so it was a waste of money. Only after putting more money on it were they able to prove the detractors right.
World Class civil service