Mum makes 100 mile dash to save baby

For Tracy Rowland and her partner Jason Lear the best Christmas present they could have wished for was to bring home Connor - the baby they feared they would lose.

All was going well with Tracy's pregnancy until she began suffering contractions nine weeks before the baby was due to be born.

But an even bigger shock came when Conquest Hospital staff said they did not have the facilities to cope with such a premature baby and that the nearest available space was at Portsmouth - nearly 100 miles away.

Tracy said: "On the morning of December 7 I began having contractions.

"We went to the Conquest and they put us on a machine to confirm the contractions.

"They then put us on a drip to stop the contractions because he was only 31 weeks.

"But unfortunately they didn't have any space in their special care baby unit.

"They did a lot of phoning around. Because Eastbourne and Brighton had no space the only place was at St Mary's Hospital at Portsmouth'¦!

"We set off in an ambulance with the siren going - it was going pretty well the whole way to Portsmouth.

"Jason came with me. I was on a drip to try and stop the contractions. But they still continued

"About half way there we had to stop because the drip was running out. We stopped at Worthing while another drip was brought. But it was the wrong sort of pump. So we carried on the journey without the pump.

"I was worried sick that the baby would come. The journey took two hours in all. It was a nightmare.

"I was in some pain from the contractions, but not bad. I was more worried about the baby.

"We got to Portsmouth. They gave me a tablet to stop the contractions. But it didn't work.

"I was looking up at the machine, the monitor which gave Connor's heart rate all through that Friday night.

"Early on Saturday morning his heart rate started going down.

"We went down to theatre for an emergency section. Connor was born at 7.30am. He was 4lbs 13oz.

"He needed help to get his breathing started."

Jason said: "They put him on a C-Pack machine for his lungs because they were immature. They had to put him under an ultra-violet lamp a couple of times because he was a bit jaundiced.

"But it was nice because they let me stay down there for two weeks."

Jason's pictures tell how the couple watched tiny Connor's struggle in an incubator.

Instead of the cuddles all parents enjoy with a new-born baby they had to be content with reaching a hand into the incubator and stroking him.

Worse was to come. The time came when Tracy and Jason had to leave Connor behind. The taxi fare home on Saturday, December 14 cost 105.

Tracy said: "Luckily, my mother and father paid half each for us.

"That Saturday we couldn't stop crying - or the Monday."

But despite his rough start, Connor has proved to be a fighter. He was transferred to the Eastbourne District General Hospital last Wednesday.

By Friday staff there said that if he maintained his progress he might be able to come home for Christmas.

Tracy's mother, Margaret summed up the family's feelings - gratitude for the care Tracy and Connor have received but incredulity that it was necessary to travel nearly 100 miles.

Margaret said: "With the population we have here with all the young families and the number of births I think it is absurd that there's not an adequate special care baby service locally."

But all three are agreed on the standard of care.

Tracy said: "The Conquest, St Mary's and the Eastbourne DGH were all brilliant. Our thanks go to all the staff."

Jason a house-keeper at the Conquest, said: "I felt sorry for them. They were all under so much pressure."

A spokesman for East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The reason the lady would have been transferred to Portsmouth was because it was believed her baby would require neo-natal intensive care.

"Portsmouth is not the only hospital to offer neo-natal intensive care but it was the nearest available one that day. The nearest to us is Brighton and there is one at Ashford as well but Portsmouth would have been the nearest available with a neo-natal unit able to care for babies born under 32 weeks."

Asked how often it is necessary to send local mothers as far as Portsmouth, he said: "In the last week two other ladies were transferred to Portsmouth, both because they were under 32 weeks."

Asked if last week's Trust decision to make the Conquest its major maternity unit would end the need to transfer patients to Portsmouth, he said: "We will still have a special care baby unit at the Conquest which will care for babies born AFTER 32 weeks."

Amid the joyous home-coming on Christmas Day nobody was more excited than two-year-old Megan, looking forward to being "big sister" to baby Connor.