Baby airlifted 150 miles, but mother told 'take the bus'

Published on Friday 4 July 2008 22:08

A TEENAGE mother forced to give birth more than a hundred miles from home was handed £50 to catch the bus while her baby was airlifted to a hospital in Aberdeen.

Ashleigh Wiseman, 18, from Buckie in Banffshire, was already distraught following a five-hour ambulance trip to a Glasgow maternity hospital after she went into premature labour.

Days after giving birth eight weeks early, she was told her daughter, McKenna, would be airlifted back to a hospital in Aberdeen.

Staff at the Southern General hospital in Glasgow refused to let Ashleigh travel in the air ambulance and instead gave her money for public transport.

Last night, Margaret Watt, of the Scotland Patients' Association, said: "What happened here is totally unacceptable.

"This shows a total lack of compassion."

Ashleigh said: "I was treated like a piece of dirt. A mum and her baby should never be apart, especially when the baby is so small and helpless."

The teenager was taken to hospital after her waters broke more than two months early, while she was shopping. However, her local hospital, Dr Gray's in Elgin, has no specialist neonatal care facilities, so she was taken to the nearest, which is in Glasgow.

Ashleigh and another expectant mother were driven south in an ambulance, leaving no room for Ms Wiseman's partner David Milner, 27, or her own mother Katy.

Ashleigh recalled: "I had to go on my own. I was terrified and I cried the whole way down. I needed my family around me."

After a week she gave birth to McKenna, who arrived weighing just 3lbs 10ozs, and was immediately put in an incubator.

After a further week the infant rallied and Ashleigh was told her baby was fit enough to be flown to an Aberdeen hospital – without her. She eventually paid an extra 30 to catch a train as she felt the bus would take too long and mother and baby were reunited after eight hours.

Mary Scanlon, the Tory health spokeswoman, said: "This mum deserves the most fulsome of apologies from the NHS.

It's a cruel and heartless thing to do to somebody so far from home."

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Space in neonatal transport is extremely confined and routinely mothers do not travel with their babies.

"We do, however, ensure that for mothers who are fit for discharge, there are satisfactory arrangements to return home, and we will provide practical help where required, including travel expenses."