Eleven months ago, baby Mia almost died after a contracting a chest infection. The premature infant choked on her bottle, stopped breathing and then turned blue.
Her distraught Mum called the emergency services who helped family members give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation at their Catterick Garrison home before Yorkshire Air Ambulance paramedics arrived.
Mia and her Mum were airlifted within minutes to paediatric specialists at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough where the tiny tot stopped breathing again and was placed on a ventilator.
“It was so frightening. One minute she was being fed and the next she was completely blue and not breathing,” said 18-year-old Naomi.
“The people on the phone were telling us what to do and my partner Dean, who came running in, managed to get Mia breathing again.
“The air ambulance paramedics were brilliant. I was really scared and had never been in a helicopter but they really made me feel safe and got us to hospital so quickly.
“I can’t thank them enough for all they did that day.”
Mia was in intensive care for several days but was able to return home to her relieved parents after a week. She has now fully recovered and has just celebrated her first birthday at the couple’s Richmond home.
The dramatic fight to save her life features in this week’s episode of Helicopter ER – the UKTV series that follows the life-saving work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
The programme also features a motorcyclist who suffered multiple injuries after a horror crash and a shrub cutting job that nearly ended in disaster for a North Yorkshire handyman.
Helicopter ER is made by York-based Air Television, which recently won two Royal Television Society awards for their work on the compelling series.
Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) serves 5million people across Yorkshire and carries out over 1,250 missions every year. The charity needs to raise £12,000 every day to keep saving lives.
You can watch Helicopter ER on Monday night at 9pm on Really or on catch-up on UKTV Play (uktvplay.co.uk)