A tiny little thank you to dad who ferried NHS baby teams through the big storm

Ross McKinnon, with wife Rachael, and their newborn baby Mirren, at the QEUH in Glasgow.

Ross McKinnon was hailed a hero when he ferried maternity teams to hospital during one of the worst snowstorms in decades so they could continue to care for seriously ill babies and children.

McKinnon, 42, who runs an off-road adventure company, offered his 4×4 fleet as a taxi service for staff at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital’s premature care and intensive care units during the infamous Beast from the East, which brought Scotland to a standstill in March 2018.

His rescue mission made headlines across the world and earned him the grateful thanks of staff and parents alike but this week, on the fourth anniversary of the storm, it was his turn to thank the doctors and nurses for saving the life of his own baby girl.

McKinnon and his partner Rachael Gilmour, 34, met with staff of the hospital’s maternity and neonatal intensive care units who safely delivered their daughter, Mirren, after mum developed the potentially dangerous placenta praevia.

The condition occurs in only one in 200 pregnancies when the placenta partially or fully blocks the exit from the womb. If not monitored and treated carefully, it can put both mother and child at risk of death.

Hugging his cherished family, the first-time father told The Sunday Post: “Now it’s my turn to say thank you to the doctors and nurses at the Queen Elizabeth.

“At the time of the Beast from the East, a lot was made of what we did. We knew we were doing a good thing, but we didn’t understand the gravity of the situation at the hospital and the difference we would make.

“Now I have seen it from the other side – the side of the distressed parent – and understand how important their jobs are.

“Helping the hospital during the storm was only two days out of my life, but those doctors and nurses are in the intensive care and premature care units, making a difference 24-7.

4×4 fleet owner Ross and his team ferry nurses and doctors stuck at home in the snow to hospitals in Glasgow so that they could go on helping and saving lives.

“They are absolute heroes and it seems ridiculous that a big deal was made out of what we did when what they do on a daily basis is life changing and life saving for so many families.”

Gilmour added: “They are another breed of angels. Thanks to them Mirren is doing well. She’s a wee superstar. We couldn’t be more grateful.”

The new mum – who runs Glasgow’s Reset Yoga Hub – said the later stages of her pregnancy were tough and the medical teams carefully judged the best time to deliver Mirren, keeping her in the womb for as long as possible to allow her to grow and her lungs to develop.

She was finally delivered four weeks early, weighing-in at a healthy 6lbs 9oz but her condition deteriorated not long after she was born.

McKinnon said: “It was a planned C-section and all went well until the baby was 20 minutes old. Doctors realised she was struggling to breathe for herself and to maintain her body temperature.

“She wasn’t quite ready for the outside world. She was whipped away from us to a different area in the labour ward and then up to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where we were able to join her after an hour or so.

“It was heart-breaking to see the breathing apparatus and tubes and drip, but a lot of people in that unit were going through worse than us and the medical team were absolutely amazing, from the midwife to the surgeon.

“While we were sitting in the intensive care unit I was checking work calls. I explained to the doctor that a lot of people I worked with didn’t know I was there. She asked what I did and told her about the business. Then she said, ‘was that you who brought all of us guys in here during the Beast from the East?’

“While we didn’t take her to the hospital, she had been on shift for something like 36 hours because colleagues couldn’t relieve her. It dawned on me why the hospital needed to get these doctors in. They have such intense jobs with round-the-clock observation and care.

“I didn’t really understand before exactly what they were doing, I knew it was crucial but now, being on the other side of it, I understand why such a big deal was made out of what we did.”