Charity flies critically ill girl back to UK

Lucy was "up and about and excited to go on holiday" on the day they set off for Poland, says her father

An eight-year-old girl has been airlifted home to the UK by a charity after she became critically ill with sepsis while on holiday in Poland.

Lucy, who was visiting relatives with her family from Walsall, underwent treatment abroad before the charity Lia's Wings stepped in to cover the £28,000 needed to bring her home in a special medical plane.

An ambulance was waiting at the airport to take her to Birmingham Children's Hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.

Her father, Michael Wright, said: "The truth is you don't know you need the charity until you need the charity. We didn't even know it existed. The charity's helped out, and they've done so much, and I can't thank them enough."

He told how his daughter had been ill for a couple of days before travelling but said: "On Monday morning, before the flight, she was up and about. She grabbed her suitcase; she was excited to go.

"You just don't expect to go to a foreign country just to visit family and then, all of a sudden, an extreme case of sepsis."

The charity arranged ground ambulances and a special medical plane for Lucy

The family needed to get Lucy back to the UK as her condition began to worsen, but while the family's medical insurance covered costs of treatment in Poland, it did not cover medical transport back to the UK, which is when the charity stepped in.

Lucy was too unwell to fly back on a commercial aircraft, so Lia's Wings provided a special medical plane on Monday and covered the transfer costs of about £28,000.

The plane is a mobile intensive care unit in the sky, says Lia's Wings

Charlotte Young, chief operating officer at Lia's Wings, said: "Our role is to make the transfer as easy and as stress-free as possible for the family.

"We sort out everything, so that would be from ground ambulances from the hospital to the aircraft. And then there'll be a ground ambulance waiting within the UK to then take Lucy to the hospital - to Birmingham Children's Hospital over here."

She said: "The planes that Lia's Wings uses to facilitate air ambulance transfers are essentially mobile intensive care units in the sky.

"Everything that you would see in an intensive care unit in a hospital, in a hospital ward, we replicate, but in the aircraft."

As Lucy undergoes further treatments and tests in Birmingham, her father has vowed to raise funds for Lia's Wings as a thank you for helping his daughter.