A hundred-mile dash for specialist treatment has saved the life of a baby girl from the same disorder that killed her new-born brother.

Zoe Clough is one of only a handful of local babies treated with extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

The technique rests the lungs by pumping blood out of the body, passing it through a machine which puts oxygen into it, and returning it to the body.

Baby Zoe was raced to a specialist unit in Leicester at less than 24 hours old when she suffered severe breathing difficulties after her birth at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

It was a nightmare come true for parents Linda and Neil, of Swain House, whose baby son Daniel died on Boxing Day five years ago when he suffered the same mystery breathing problems.

The couple have three other sons, Shaun, six, Aaron, three, and Kyle, 21 months. Kyle also needed treatment for breathing difficulties soon after birth, but made a full recovery.

Doctors are baffled by the condition, and even tests sent to America by medics in Leicester have failed to come up with a diagnosis.

Zoe, who was born two days after she was due, is now back in the city's special care baby unit, where she is able to breathe on her own. Consultant neonatal paediatrician Dr Chris Day said she had a good chance of a complete recovery.

Linda had a caesarean operation for Zoe's birth on August 25, and was not fit enough to go to Leicester with her new-born baby, so Neil was driven to be with his daughter by his father.

"It was scary going all that way," he said. "When I got there and looked at that machine, it was so scary."

Neil stayed by Zoe's cot around the clock, even missing the wedding of his twin Mark to Joanne, where he had planned to be best man.

Linda managed to make it to the wedding, only five days after Zoe's birth, to see son Shaun act as pageboy.

Linda then stayed with Zoe until she was well enough to be taken off the machine and transferred back to Bradford, after 15 days in Leicester.

"Zoe was on the machine and I couldn't cuddle her," said Linda. "It was an emotional moment when I was able to hold her for the first time,"

The couple have been told Zoe has a hole in her heart, which doctors hope will close without the need for surgery.

Hilary Moore, ECMO co-ordinator in Leicester, accompanied Zoe on her 100-mile ambulance journey to Leicester.

"Zoe was very sick, obviously, life-threateningly ill, and we got her back here successfully," she said. "The transfer is quite a risk for these babies.

"We started her on ECMO as soon as she arrived, literally we put her on the bed, put monitors on and got her straight onto the machine. She was very poorly for the first three or four days but stabilised and came off and we're delighted because she did really well."

Both Linda and Neil are full of praise for the skill and support of staff at the Leicester unit, and those in Bradford who continue to care for their daughter.

ECMO Facts

ECMO, extra corporeal membrane oxygenation, has only been available in this country since 1989, when specialists in Leicester started to offer the treatment.

They had learned about it from doctors at the University of Michigan in America.

The specialist treatment involves removing blood from the body, pumping it through a machine which adds oxygen, then returning it to the body. This way, the lungs do no work at all and no air is pumped into them. This allows them to rest and permits treatment to carry on.

The Leicester unit is now the busiest ECMO centre in the world. It treats about 40 newborn babies a year, and a total of 100-150 cases, and the technique is also available in Newcastle, Glasgow and at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Each machine costs about £40,000 and the Leicester centre, which has five machines, co-ordinated a research trial on the benefits of the technique, which is used for babies, children and adults with severe heart and lung failure.

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