Natalie Cherrington first shared her story of a flight on a Northern Rescue Helicopter back in 2016.
On 20 January, 2014, Natalie’s daughter Georgia was born 12 weeks premature – requiring flights to Auckland NICU and back to Whangārei SCBU.
After that ordeal, she never expected to need the life-saving service again.
That was the first of three critical flights her immediate whānau have benefited from.
On May 14, 2016, her husband Sam badly broke his ankle in a rugby game and on 27 August, 2022, her daughter Briar choked on an apple and was flow to Starship Hospital.
Looking back, Natalie says they are incredibly grateful for the speed of care they received – flights critical to keeping the family together.
“Without the rescue helicopters, my family might not be here today,” says Natalie. “My children could have been lost. Their safety is priceless.”
Natalie says she urges everyone to support the rescue helicopters, in any way that they can.
“My life could be a lot different if it weren’t for those helicopters. Support them – you never know when you might need them yourself.”
After delivering her 12-week premature baby girl Georgia at Whangārei Base Hospital, and watching her tiny baby who weighed in at barely over a kilo, fight for her life, Natalie knows her daughter would have never survived if it wasn’t for an urgent flight to Auckland Hospital when she was just hours old.
“Georgia was coming out whether we liked it or not, and when she did, she was so tiny.”
“It was frightening seeing her with all these tubes and wires from her when she was only just born; she was so little. The decision was made before she was born that due to her being only 28 weeks’ gestation that we would be going to Auckland,” says the thankful mum of three.
“My labour was too far along to fly before she was born, so plans were made to fly her soon after birth. Without that helicopter, my child would not have survived. It is as simple as that.
That was in January 2014.
Once Georgia reached 32 weeks gestation and with her condition improving Georgia along with her mum were flown back home again to the Special Care Baby Unit at Whangarei Hospital. Finally, eleven weeks and five days after she was born, and still attached to essential oxygen, baby Georgia was allowed to go home.
In May 2016, the helicopter was called on again for the family.
“My husband took a tackle bad on the rugby field when he was playing over in Dargaville and he broke his ankle badly, but with all the stress and pain, he ended up in shock. On arrival at the hospital, he stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated.”
Then in August 2022, the youngest of the family choked on an apple, after being prepped for surgery in Whangārei, it was decided that it would be too risky to operate with out immediate access to her airways if something were to go wrong, back on the helicopter they went.
“I just can’t place a value on the help my family has received from the Northern Rescue Helicopters over the years because how can you put a price on life? We are so, so grateful for the care we have received.”
