A TERRIFIED mum is seriously considering moving her family out of Pembrokeshire in order to be closer to emergency care.

Sarah McColl-Dorion lives with a constant fear of losing her daughter since the health board made the controversial decision to move overnight paediatric services from Withybush Hospital to Glangwili Hospital.

Sarah’s six year-old daughter Nia suffers from uncontrolled epilepsy, and despite large doses of daily medicine, she suffers regular seizures, some of which are life threatening.

Sarah recalls having to drive Nia from their home in Fishguard to Withybush Hospital in adverse weather to get help. “To say the trip was frightening is an understatement,” she said.

“15 miles in torrential rain was difficult, but I know for certain that I could not have managed over an hour’s drive away to Glangwili in such a state of panic. We do not even have the assurances that an ambulance will be available.”

Nia was not born with epilepsy. She suffered her first episode just over 12 months ago.

“My daughter turned blue on the couch,” said Sarah, “we didn’t know what was happening. She was lifeless and limp; it is an experience I would not wish any mother to ever go through.”

An ambulance took Nia to Withybush Hospital, which at the time still had 24 hour paediatric care. Nia suffered seizures for nine straight hours, and Sarah said she may have suffered brain damage or worse had it not been for the doctors and nurses that attended to her so quickly.

Sarah now worries about what will happen to the next mother who goes through what she did.

“Not one parent in our local area should feel confident by the cuts in our services at Withybush because every parent could potentially have a little one like mine,” she said.

“Epilepsy and many other conditions can just occur out of the blue. Stopping seizures is imperative in the first minutes and it is sadly likely now that some parents will be less fortunate that we were.”

Sarah is now seriously thinking of uprooting her family of six in order for Nia to have quick access to 24 hour paediatric care. But it is not a decision the Fishguard and Goodwick town clerk is taking lightly.

“My partner and I both work full time and we are both very happy in our jobs,” she said. “My other children are happy and settled at school and our extended families are here. It is not a case of wanting to move, but the helpless feeling that we may have no choice.”

Sarah will be standing shoulder to shoulder with other worried parents outside the Senedd on March 4 for a demonstration organised by Save Withybush Action Team (SWAT).

She said: “I would ask the Health Minister Mark Drakeford for the assurance that Nia will get emergency assistance immediately if she is in a life threatening situation again. I want assurances that an ambulance will be available equipped with life saving medication and oxygen for her.”

Sarah is encouraging as many people as possible to make the trip to Cardiff Bay.

“It is a frightening thought that we are being forced to play Russian roulette with people’s lives. We must protest at the Senedd and save our services,” she said.