Woman gives birth in coastguard helicopter over Cornwall

A woman has thanked medical staff and aircrew who helped in the birth of her son, who was born inside a helicopter almost half a kilometre above the Cornish coast.

Torran MacDonald was born in a coastguard helicopter over Penzance on Saturday night, weighing 3.4kg (7lb 8oz), after his mother, Alicia MacDonald, went into labour while visiting the Isles of Scilly.

MacDonald had been on the islands to conduct the ceremony for a friend’s wedding and went into labour earlier than expected.

There was no midwife on the islands on Saturday night, so the coastguard was asked by the South Western ambulance service to fly MacDonald and her husband, Sandy, to the mainland.

The Newquay coastguard helicopter was scrambled, collected a midwife, touched down at St Mary’s airport, picked up the MacDonalds and then began the trip to the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro.

However, Torran made his appearance on board the aircraft at 426 metres (1,400 ft) with the help of the midwife Linda Benson and aircrew.

Alicia MacDonald said Torran was a younger brother for sister Fearne. “Torran is doing fine and we’d like to thank the coastguard, the midwife and the midwifery team at the hospital,” she said. The family also released an image of Torran – in an outfit decorated with a colourful helicopter.

Jonathan Mustard, aeronautical operations controller for HM Coastguard, said: “This is the second time that a baby has been born on board a coastguard helicopter. The last one was born over the island of Lunna Holm, Shetland in December 2012.

“It’s rare to hear that our helicopter launched with seven people on board but were preparing to land with eight.”

The Royal Cornwall hospitals trust said a midwife is based on Scilly but whenever she is not due to be on-call, a standby team is available on the mainland. A spokesperson said: “The midwives train with the coastguard helicopter based at Newquay, so that everyone on board is well-prepared to transfer a mother in labour to the Royal Cornwall hospital.”