Life Flight

Rosie stood frozen in shock as the Life Flight crew ran into her baby’s hospital room, intubated him on the spot, whisked him off to the waiting helicopter and took to the skies.

Little Rieko was only a week old. Rosie couldn’t go with him — the crew needed the space to keep him alive. She didn’t know if she’d see him again.

Until an hour earlier, Rieko had seemed perfectly healthy. A big baby at nine pounds, he’d sometimes turn a little “dusky” while feeding — but staff had put it down to his size.

Now he’d crashed. His oxygen had plummeted, and no one yet knew why. It would be days before doctors found a critical heart defect blocking blood flow to his lungs. Without emergency surgery, Rieko would not survive.

Life Flight had to get him to Wellington, then on to Starship in Auckland, as fast as possible. What’s more, they had to fly at night – only possible with special night vision goggles.