Neonatal ambulance "limped back to Dublin" after breaking down on way to collect baby

A neonatal ambulance broke down as it was on its way to collect a baby in Cork who needed to go to Our Lady’s Hospital in Dublin, the HSE has confirmed.

However, the second ambulance also developed problems and it was at least five and a half hours before the baby arrived at hospital in Dublin.

A source in the ambulance service said the second vehicle “limped back to Dublin but they got the baby to the hospital”.

The second ambulance had to stop en route to Cork to collect the incubator that had been was in the neonatal ambulance, which broke down near Mitchelstown, 55km from Cork University Hospital.

The neonatal ambulance carries a special incubator which is recommended for transporting babies and it was vital that this incubator was with the team for the journey to Dublin.

Ambulance service sources say the neonatal ambulance is near the end of its life, with around 360,000km on its odometer. It is to be removed from service when it reaches 400,000km.

A spokeswoman for the HSE confirmed that, on March 3, the neonatal ambulance was asked to go to CUH “to transport a neonate back to Dublin”. She said the ambulance, “departed [the] Rotunda at 18:35 approximately and proceeded to Cork. On arrival on outskirts of Cork City [Mitchelstown exit], the vehicle developed a mechanical problem and the control were informed of same”.

A response vehicle was sent from Cork City station, collected the medical team that had travelled with the ambulance, and took them to CUH.

The spokeswoman said: “Control also alerted the night shift vehicle [5V98] in Dublin requesting that it proceed to Cork and [it] collected the incubator and then [went] on to Cork University Hospital.”

She said that, as this ambulance arrived at the Dublin side of the Naas Road, “this vehicle developed a loss of power but the vehicle was in a position to continue to its destination under reduced power and completed the assigned call”.

The spokeswoman said the first vehicle broke down on March 3 and “the second vehicle developed difficulties in the early hours of March 4”.

This means at least five and a half hours passed before the baby arrived at Crumlin Children’s Hospital.

The HSE did not respond to questions asking for the time the baby left CUH and the time it arrived at Crumlin hospital.

In a similar incident, an ambulance ran out of fuel while taking a transplant patient from Cork to Dublin for an urgent lung transplant on September 19.

The incident on the M8 on the outskirts of the capital triggered an investigation by the National Ambulance Service.

The Irish Examiner learned that, following an initial inspection of the vehicle, no mechanical faults were identified.

In response to queries from this newspaper at the time, the HSE confirmed that the vehicle’s fuel tanks had run dry.