Warrior Wahley born on highway, airlifted to Townsville University Hospital, ready for home

Born 16 weeks early in an ambulance on the side of the highway, near Tully, in the early hours of Mother’s Day, Wahley Punch-Bolte is a miracle in every sense of the word.

Hand-ventilated by the local hospital team for three hours, under the guidance of a Townsville University Hospital neonatologist, while a specialist crew boarded a mercy flight to retrieve him, this warrior baby is now 110 days old and more than triple his birth weight.

For mum Tamarah Punch and dad Jakinta Bolte, Wahley is a precious new addition to their family which includes big sister Zariah, six, and a large extended family in the far north.

Ms Punch’s pregnancy had been uneventful, but all that changed the day before Mother’s Day,12 May.

“I had pains from when I woke up, but I didn’t think they were contractions,” she said.

“Later that night, the pains were coming every two minutes so I called an ambulance.

“I was taken to Tully Hospital and then I went in the ambulance to have him in Innisfail but five or 10 minutes down the road they had to pull over and I had him the ambulance.”

By this time, it was the early hours of Sunday morning Mother’s Day.

Ms Punch and her tiny baby boy, weighing just 600g, were rapidly transferred into a second waiting ambulance with infant resuscitation equipment and an incubator and rushed back to Tully Hospital where medical and nursing teams were waiting.

Also waiting, via a videolink from Townsville University Hospital, was neonatologist Professor Yoga Kandasamy, who expertly guided the local team in Wahley’s care.

“He needed manual breathing support and the team in Tully did an amazing job to keep him stable,” Professor Kandasamy said.

While Professor Kandasamy was on videolink, nurse practitioner Barbara Monk and clinical nurse Sarah Currie were airborne on a QGAir helicopter bound for Tully Hospital.

“There was fog and our pilot, Sacha Gimenez, did a brilliant job to get us there so quickly and safely,” Ms Monk said.

“Once we landed, around 3am, I was very relieved to see Wahley.

“We put a breathing tube in and some umbilical lines into his belly button to give him fluids.

“Once he was tubed and lined, we gathered him up in our warm incubator, had some photos taken with Tamarah and Jakinta, and what felt like the whole of Tully Hospital, and brought him back to Townsville.”

For Dr Sue Ireland, clinical director of the aeromedical neonatal transport service (ANTS), Wahley is proof positive of the work the service does in looking after preterm and critically ill babies who need specialist care.

“ANTS is critical to the successful care of babies like Wahley,” she said.

“I’m so proud of the work we do and of our flexibility to send the right team to a retrieval with almost no notice.

“It all came together that night, the training, our communication with retrieval services and Tully Hospital, and Wahley being here today is testament to that.

“We can’t do what we do without the wonderful work of RSQ, RFDS, CareFlight, and QGAir.”

Adding to the miracle, Wahley was born inside an intact amniotic sac, a rare event known as an en caul birth.

Dr Ireland said she had seen an en caul birth twice in her entire career.

“It almost never happens; Wahley is extraordinary,” she said.

Despite his miracle birth and heroic retrieval, the next few months were anything but smooth sailing for Wahley with complication after complication.

“Because Tamarah imminently birthed, she didn’t get the steroids antenatally which help with the baby’s lung and brain development, so he had lots of infections and complications,” Ms Monk said.

“But now he’s a new boy who’s come out the other side.”

For Wahley’s parents, the challenges of the past few months are now happily behind them.

“It’s had its ups and downs, but we’ve come through staying positive and being patient,” Ms Punch said.

“It was all worth it; he’s come good.”

“It was definitely a miracle,” Mr Bolte said.

“His birth was very tense but at the same time a sense of happiness.”