A SICK baby airlifted to hospital in England due to a shortage of specialist neo-natal beds in Northern Ireland was denied a vaccination which might have prevented his condition.
Six-week-old Ben Marshall was flown to Liverpool's Alderhay hospital after doctors at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald said the hospital's only specialist intensive care bed was unavailable.
Born nine weeks premature, Ben was diagnosed on Friday w
ith the condition RSV – Respiratory Synctial Virus – a condition which claimed the life of his infant brother last year.
Campaigners petitioning the Government for improvements to neo-natal care in Northern Ireland claim the RSV vaccine is routinely given to premature babies at some hospitals, but not at the Ulster.
A spokeswoman for the group Life After Loss said "it's all down to money", with each vaccine understood to cost £7,000.
Speaking from her son's bedside in Liverpool, mother Michelle Marshall last night told the News Letter her son's condition had shown a slight improvement following a very harrowing weekend. She backed campaigners calls for money to bolster neo-natal care here.
"We definitely need more money for more beds and, more importantly, the staff to care for the babies.
"Nobody should have to go through the ordeal of having your sick baby transferred. It just needs money," she said.
The Marshalls' nightmare ordeal began on Friday afternoon when little Ben stopped breathing at their home in Millisle.
Michelle had to keep shaking her son to keep him breathing the whole way to the hospital. By the time they got to the Ulster hospital in Dundonald, doctors diagnosed RSV, which last year claimed the life of the Marshalls' first baby Bailey, who died at just five weeks old.
Requiring a specialist neo-natal intensive care bed, the Ulster Hospital's single cot of that type was already in use.
Medical staff tried to find him one among Northern Ireland's 19 other IC beds for ill babies, which are divided among Ulster's other acute hospitals, but none was available.
Calls to hospitals in the Republic of Ireland also proved futile, so doctors had no alternative but to send him to Liverpool's Alderhay hospital.
Despite being born so prematurely, weighing just 3lb 7oz, Ben was not given the RSV vaccination, and campaigners claim that, if he survives, he will have repeated bouts of RSV throughout his life.
Speaking yesterday from Liverpool, Michelle said that doctors felt Ben had shown signs of improvement.
"He's managed to get his secretions, the mucus, up from his lungs. The RSV is a type of bronchialitis and premature babies are very prone to it, in adults it's just a cold.
"He had a blood transfusion on Saturday and it's brought all his levels up again and they are hoping to reduce his ventilation today."
Michelle said the time away from her sick little boy, from Friday night until Saturday morning when she and Nigel arrived at his bedside, was a sheer nightmare.
"Saying goodbye to him at the hospital was very difficult because you're not sure if you're going to see them again, because transferring babies really set them back."
A spokeswoman from the Ulster Hospitals Trust said the drug Synagis, to treat RVS, would be given at the Ulster under "agreed protocols".
However, she said Ben had not met the strict "criteria" for its administering.
She added she would be in a position to release further details on the issue today.
