A lack of ambulance services in rural Co Mayo has resulted in one GP, a former Dáil deputy, delivering a seventh baby in his surgery in the coastal village of Mulranny over the past few years.
Baby Amaya Gallagher may be just four days old but, after her emergency delivery last Friday night, she is now at the centre of a campaign to highlight the lack of ambulance services in remote areas of west Mayo.
A petition has been launched in the areas of the county that are served by a new ambulance based in Mulranny as the base has not been adequately staffed.
The HSE confirmed that an ambulance was dispatched from Castlebar to Mulranny after it received an emergency call. The call was made by Dr Jerry Cowley immediately after the arrival of the distressed woman at his surgery. The ambulance arrived 40 minutes later, just five minutes before the baby was delivered.
Now back home on Achill Island with her parents Elaine Gallagher and Trevor Floody, and nine-year-old brother Caoilean, the story of Amaya's birth could have been very different but for the intervention of Dr Cowley, a former Independent TD.
“Dr Cowley, his wife Teresa and their daughter Caroline saved my baby’s life and possibly mine,” Elaine Gallagher said. “I feel very lucky the baby wasn’t born on the side of the road because it could have had fatal consequences since Amaya was not breathing when she was delivered.”
Ms Gallagher said both she and her partner were “still traumatised” by the ordeal.
“The ambulance arrived just as the baby was born. It is just a disgrace that there isn’t one based in Mulranny all the time. It is so badly needed. I know my own case was serious and could have been much worse but there are so many life-and-death situations.
Dr Cowley, who has been a longtime rural ambulance services campaigner, has started a petition calling on Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister of State Michael Ring "to provide the finance necessary to employ the HSE personnel required" to run the newly opened Mulranny HSE ambulance base".
“It just goes to show the vast distances people have to travel from Achill and the surrounding areas which would be covered by the HSE Mulranny ambulance base,” he said.
Dr Cowley said the recently opened ambulance base “is rarely manned” as crews are regularly diverted before they get as far as Mulranny.
The HSE confirmed the ambulance service has been “working towards the establishment of an ambulance base in Mulranny”. It said Mayo currently has six emergency response crews staffed with paramedics during the day. “At night Mayo is resourced with four emergency crews,” it said. It also said that emergency ambulances are used “in a dynamic manner to maintain emergency cover and respond to emergency calls as required”.