Albie's story - The day everything changed - Great Western Air Ambulance Charity
GWAAC CEO Anna Perry (middle) collecting Supplier of the Year award for FLT Group's outstanding support
Celebrating success at Air Ambulances UK Awards of Excellence 2025
December 5, 2025
Celebrating our hidden heroes: Five GWAAC Ground Crew members recognised by Room to Reward
December 11, 2025
GWAAC CEO Anna Perry (middle) collecting Supplier of the Year award for FLT Group's outstanding support
Celebrating success at Air Ambulances UK Awards of Excellence 2025
December 5, 2025
Celebrating our hidden heroes: Five GWAAC Ground Crew members recognised by Room to Reward
December 11, 2025

Albie’s story – The day everything changed

Albie's story

The day everything changed: How Great Western Air Ambulance Charity’s Critical Care Team helped save Baby Albie

The last thing that new parents Tom and Victoria expected was for their beautiful three-day-old baby boy to suddenly stop breathing and be in urgent need of critical care. But on 17 January 2024, on a day that should have been filled with excitement and happy memories, the family’s world turned into chaos and panic.

But thanks to the quick actions of their midwife, local ambulance crews and Great Western Air Ambulance Charity’s (GWAAC) Critical Care Team, little Albie is here today, living his best fun-filled toddler life and very much looking forward to another Christmas with his family.

 

“We were totally in love with our new little baby”

Mum Victoria remembers the bliss of those early days at home with Albie: “We had had the best time at home, just the three of us, and we were so excited for our future. We were obviously a little nervous as new parents—there’s a lot to learn and figure out as you go along, but we were looking forward to a visit from my parents, sister and nieces. We couldn’t wait to show off our beautiful boy with his massive dimples!”

But something didn’t feel quite right. Tom and Victoria were a little concerned that Albie had been quite sleepy and not feeding very well. On the day that both Victoria’s family and the midwife were due to visit, Victoria decided to call the midwife and ask if she could come sooner.

Victoria said, “By the time she arrived, we had a house full of people. She gave Albie a cuddle and weighed him. She thought he seemed a bit lethargic and noticed he had mottled skin under his clothing and was breathing irregularly.” Acting on instinct, she called for an ambulance, automatically alerting specialist dispatchers who decided GWAAC’s Critical Care Team were needed.

 

“It went from zero to terrifying very quickly”

Victoria had stepped out of the room to update her family, but when she returned she froze with shock—the midwife was performing CPR on Albie on her dining room table!

“It was then all a bit of a blur,” Victoria said. “Suddenly there were ambulances outside and people filled the room. Then I heard the air ambulance landing in the park across the road and that was when I could really feel the panic rising.”

 

“The air ambulance team walked in, calm and in control”

GWAAC’s Critical Care Doctor Nicky and Specialist Paramedic in Critical Care (SPCC) Jack brought emergency, hospital level treatment straight into the family’s home. Victoria remembers that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But the situation worsened when Albie began to have a severe seizure.

Dr Nicky recalls, “We knew we had to act quickly and gain control of a possibly spiralling clinical picture. For a baby who stops breathing and begins seizing, we treat every possible life-threatening cause at once. We managed Albie’s airway, breathing and oxygen, all while correcting possible reversable causes by administrating various medications and types of infusions, which included antiseizure medication, antibiotics, glucose and fluids. There were several potential causes making Albie so critically unwell but at that point it was impossible to know which.” 

Throughout it all, the team kept Tom and Victoria informed shielding them only when necessary.

One of the most difficult moments came when they needed to insert a needle into Albie’s femur to quickly deliver lifesaving medications and infusions.

 “We tried to shield it from Albies parents,” SPCC Jack says. “It looks much worse than it is for the patient, but it’s not something any parent should have to see.”

 Victoria adds, “The best thing about that awful situation was the calming presence of SPCC Jack and Dr Nicky. We knew Albie was in incredibly capable hands.”

 

A race against time

When Albie was stable enough Dr Nicky and SPCC Jack travelled with him in an ambulance to the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. There, an entire paediatric emergency team stood waiting to continue the care Dr Nicky and SPCC Jack had started.

But just as hope was returning, Albie suffered another serious seizure. He was placed in an induced coma and transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Doctors prepared the family for the worst but Victoria said, “I always believed he’d be absolutely fine. He was my beautiful three-day-old baby. Of course he would fight this.”

 After a week in PICU, Albie was moved to the paediatric neurosciences ward for further investigations but all the test results came back normal. Two weeks after the nightmare began, Albie finally went home with a feeding tube and a long road of monitoring ahead.

 

A thriving toddler and grateful parents

Today, Albie is a lively, curious, happy little boy, and Tom and Victoria embrace a different kind of chaos—Albie chasing their Sprocker Spaniel around the living room and at his local park (the one where GWAAC’s helicopter had landed to help save his life). 

Victoria says, “He is the most incredible little boy. He is adventurous, inquisitive, loves to laugh, loves to dance to songs, loves his food, and more recently loves being independent! He learnt to walk quite early on, and now he never stops!”

Although the cause of his collapse remains unknown, Albie continues with annual check-ups and is currently healthy and full of energy.

“It’s hard not to worry that it might happen again.” Victoria said, “But we made a decision in hospital to live life to the absolute fullest. We even said that if we make it home with Albie, we would never complain of sleepless nights again, although this is something I don’t think we’ve been able to keep up with!”

 

“We thought air ambulances just got you to hospital”

Months later, when they felt ready, Tom and Victoria visited Dr Nicky and SPCC Jack at GWAAC’s airbase to say thank you. Albie proudly brought along his toy helicopter.

Tom said, “Until you turned up at our door, we thought the air ambulance was just a way to get someone to hospital. We didn’t know you brought the hospital to the patient. We haven’t the words to express how grateful we are.”

Victoria reflected, “After the elation of being new parents, we hit the bottom of all rock bottoms. We had amazing support that day at home and in hospital since and we’re determined to give something back.”

 

Raising funds for GWAAC

As a way to show their gratitude and help GWAAC be there for future patients, Tom and Victoria set themselves a challenge: to run 2,272 miles—which is the number of missions GWAAC undertook in 2024. They enlisted the help of the whole family, even the dog, and they raised just over £4,000 to help keep their air ambulance charity flying.

“Everyone saved our little boy.” Victoria says. “Our midwife, the ambulance crews, GWAAC, the hospital staff; they all had a part to play and we’ll never be able to thank them enough.”