Alicia MacDonald of Inverness went into labour during a visit to the Isles of Scilly, where she was conducting a wedding ceremony for a friend. Her labour began on Saturday evening and there was no midwife service available on the island.

As reported by the Independent, an HM Coastguard helicopter rushed to the rescue, hoping to get MacDonald to a hospital in Cornwall in time to give birth. However, baby Torran surprised everyone by coming into the world at 1,400 feet above Penzance. Both mother and baby boy are doing just fine.

Visit to the Isles of Scilly leads to surprise labour

When MacDonald went into labour visiting the Isles of Scilly, it turned out to be a huge problem. There was no midwife service available on the islands that night. Emergency crews got the call on Saturday evening to give urgent assistance to a woman who had gone into labour during her visit to the islands.

The South West Ambulance Service asked the HM Coastguard to come to the rescue and to fly Alicia and her husband, Sandy over to the mainland to a hospital where Alicia could safely give birth.

A helicopter stationed at Newquay took off and collected a midwife along the way, before landing at St. Mary’s Airport to pick up Alicia and her husband. They then started their flight to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, Cornwall.

It was lucky they had collected Linda Benson, the midwife, along the way, as baby Torran decided not to wait until they arrived at the hospital and was born on the helicopter shortly before 21:00 BST.

As can be seen above, Torran was even gifted with a helicopter onesie.

Alicia said baby Torran, who weighed in at 7lb and 8 oz, is doing fine and she and her husband wanted to thank the coastguard, midwife and all the team at the hospital for everything they did to help them. Torran is a second child for Alicia and Sandy who have a daughter, Fearne.

Somebody decided to do a cartoon about the story and post it to Twitter.

Second baby to be born on a helicopter

The BBC quotes HM Coastguard’s aeronautical operations controller, Jonathan Mustard, as saying the baby boy was only the second baby to come into the world on one of their helicopters. Apparently, in December 2012, a woman named Lunna Holm gave birth to her baby on one of the coastguard aircraft above Shetland.

Mustard also said it is rare to hear that one of their coastguard helicopters had taken off with seven people on board while preparing to land the helicopter with eight. He went on to congratulate Alicia and Sandy on their newborn son, Torran.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED