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‘Your unit gave Hope to triplets’

23/ 3/2006

A SCOTTISH couple faced a 300-mile plane journey to have their triplets at Hope Hospital because there were not enough incubators closer to their Edinburgh home.

Ragnar Lochen and his fiancee Michelle Garry were preparing for admission to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary when her waters broke on Saturday March 11. But they were astounded when staff told them there weren't enough intensive care incubators needed for the triplets who were arriving eight weeks early.

They faced either having the triplets separated with one staying in Edinburgh, one in Glasgow and the other at Newcastle, or travelling outside the country to Salford where they could all stay together.

Ragnar and Michelle agreed to travel by air ambulance and arrived at Manchester Airport that evening before being taken to Hope. The triplets eventually arrived by Caesarean almost a week later on St Patrick's Day - March 17.

The couple have heaped praise on the staff and facilities at Hope and are shocked by the proposals to close the unit down.

Ragnar, 33, said: "There was no room to have the triplets at Edinburgh so they checked various hospitals within Scotland but there was still no room. After about four hours they came back and said the only place we could go to and all stay together was Salford so we had no choice in the matter really.

"If it wasn't for Hope I don't know how further south we would have had to travel. I think it's a bit sad that in the capital of Scotland they couldn't accommodate us. They didn't give us any indication the place was going to be full."

The couple have been staying in the hospital's Ronald McDonald unit where parents are given their own private room to stay. The triplets are now out of intensive care and breathing on their own.

Michelle, 31, added: "I was just shocked and emotional when we found out they had no room, I hadn't contemplated that at all. We were in a six-seater plane with two pilots, a paramedic and a midwife. I didn't end up having the triplets until six days later but I knew I could have started having them at any time.

"It seems silly they're talking about closing the maternity down. The room we're in is lovely and all those facilities will be lost. The staff have been absolutely fantastic. We couldn't have asked for anything better and it seems such a shame to let it go."