Miracle baby family praise hospital services

The family of a "miracle" Shropshire baby today said their son may not still be with them if maternity services had been moved from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

The claims from Ollie Harris's mum Kelly Roberts will add fuel to the fire around Shropshire's great hospital debate, with communities divided over plans to share services between Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal in Telford.

Proposals currently out to consultation would see maternity services based at Telford.

Little Ollie was born stillborn and didn't take a breath or a heartbeat for the first 13 minutes of his life.

Staff at the RSH were able to revive him and use therapeutic hypothermia treatment to reduce his body temperature to help nurse him to full health.

His parents Fred Harris and Kelly Roberts and grandparents John and Betty Harris have praised staff at the under-threat unit.

Kelly said: "It was all such a blur at the time — doctors and nurses were constantly coming to us explaining what was going on and, even though it was hard to take it all in, they did a really good job.

"Ollie is eight weeks old today and if it were not for the people working at the neo-natal unit he would not be here. "If they close the unit down what will other people do?

Betty Harris, who lives in Leominster, said: "The nurses reacted really quickly at the time and they saved his life. If the unit in Shrewsbury wasn't there Ollie wouldn't be alive now and I don't think I could have handled that."

Among proposals put forward as part of a shake-up of county healthcare is one to move all maternity and neo-natal services to Telford's Princess Royal Hospital.

Consultation on the proposals will end on Monday and a decision is expected to be made by Shropshire County Primary Care Trust and NHS Telford & Wrekin on March 24.

Healthcare bosses and doctors insist changes are crucial to ensure major services are kept in the county.

For more details visit www.sath.nhs.uk