A one month-old baby boy has been airlifted from an NHS hospital in Britain to Rome to receive treatment for a serious heart condition, in a landmark intervention staged by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
A military aircraft brought the child from the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children to Rome, with Italian authorities bringing a specially-adapted ambulance to transfer the baby.
The boy arrived at Ciampino airport on Italian Airforce flight C130 on Tuesday evening at around 18:30 BST, to be transferred to Bambino Gesù paediatric hospital from NHS Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, the BBC reports. After the military aircraft arrived in Rome at an airport ten minutes from the hospital, the child underwent a double operation.
“My wife and I are very happy and relieved,” said the father from Italy, adding that the family thanked Meloni and the Italian authorities “who actively took action to make the transfer of our son possible,” according to The Times. He also thanked the UK medical team “for smoothly authorising and supporting us and our son through this process”.
While the child and his parents have not been identified, the infant’s father is believed to be an Italian citizen who has worked in the UK for a number of years, who felt the family was left with no other options but to ask Meloni’s government to intervene.
Meloni’s personal intervention came after the family of the child were told by doctors in Bristol that the specialist treatment needed for the child, who suffers from a congenital heart condition, was not available in the UK.
The British press reports that the family initially threatened legal action with hospital managers, however doctors co-operated with the family and a deal was reached to allow the airlift, which was funded by the Italians. The Times reports that representatives of the family said Italian authorities were able to work with NHS managers to secure the transfer of the child before the issue was brought before a High Court judge.
The newspaper said it understands that after doctors saw the plans for the transfer and treatment of the child, officials agreed to allow the boy to be discharged, averting High Court action.
Palazzo Chigi, the office of the Italian prime minister, referred to the transfer as being “one of the first of its kind.” It said the transfer required “a comprehensive organisational effort”, involving the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Health, the Italian Embassy and the Consulate General of Italy in London.
“There was full and fruitful cooperation with the health authorities in the United Kingdom, and in particular with the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children,” it said in a statement, adding:
“The high level of professionalism of the doctors at Rome’s Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital together with the efficiency of all administrations involved enabled this complex and delicate transfer to be completed successfully, one of the first of its kind for such a small patient with such a serious condition.”
Last year, the same Vatican-controlled hospital in Rome also offered to treat British baby girl Indi Gregory, who died in November after an NHS hospital withdrew her life support following multiple legal challenges from the infant’s family.
Baby Indi’s parents engaged in a long-running legal battle with the NHS over their child’s care, bringing legal action so that the child could be transferred to the Rome hospital for emergency specialist treatment. They were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid to have Indi, who had mitochondrial disease, brought to Rome, despite Meloni’s Italian government granting the baby citizenship one week prior to her death.
The move meant the baby girl from Derbyshire could go to Rome for treatment if allowed by the UK courts – with Italian Prime Minister Meloni saying that she would do everything in her power to “defend her life” until the end.
Ms Meloni later urgently wrote to the UK’s Lord Chancellor calling on the two countries to officially collaborate on facilitating Indi’s transfer to Rome under the 1996 Hague Convention. The Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital in Rome had offered to accept Indi for treatment and to carry out the right ventricular outflow tract stent procedure that has been put forward by medical experts in the UK. The Italian government had also offered to fund the treatment, at no cost to UK taxpayers or the NHS.
However, UK judges ruled against allowing Indi to go to Italy for treatment, stating that Italian intervention in the case would be “wholly misconceived” and “not in the spirit” of the Hague Convention.
Indi’s family had expressed gratitude towards the Italian government, saying their intervention had restored their “faith in humanity.”
The family, announcing the child’s death, said they were “angry, heartbroken, and ashamed.”
“The NHS and the Courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi’s dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged,” Indi’s parents said in a statement announcing her death.
A poignant message from Pope Francis was read at the child’s funeral in December, along with a letter from Ms Meloni, who said that the little girl lived “a short life, too short, but long enough for your daughter to remind people everywhere that every life, every single life, no matter how imperfect it may seem to the world, is a treasure to be cherished”.
“She let herself be loved and she loved. She brought light into the lives of those around her, filling your lives and those of so many others with meaning,” the Italian prime minister wrote.
Italian lawyer Simone Pillon, who represented baby Indi’s parents, also represented the parents of the unidentified baby from Bristol. He said in a statement: “We are very pleased that we have been able to demonstrate to the UK that it is possible to work together and safely transfer children with serious medical conditions from the UK to Rome for specialist treatment.”
Pillon also paid tribute to baby Indi, saying that while it was “an encouraging day for this baby boy and his family, we think of the family of Indi Gregory who were denied the chance to bring their child to Italy”.
He added: “We hope this can be the beginning of further cooperation and teamwork with the UK when such emergencies occur and when there is an opportunity to try and save a child’s life.”