A family whose twin girl was taken to hospital after surviving a viral infection which killed her brother faced another ordeal yesterday when their oldest daughter was flown to the mainland for emergency medical treatment.
Laura MacNeil was six weeks old when she was flown about 200 miles from her home in Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, at the end of February to Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children, in Glasgow.
It was feared the girl had contracted the same infection which killed her brother, Rhys, hours earlier. Laura recovered and was able to return home.
However, her parents John and Merian were dealt another blow when their other child, Joanna, 21 months, became unwell, and had to be flown to the mainland for emergency treatment. The condition of the child and cause of her illness was not clear last night.
A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "We were requested to transfer a child from Barra to Glasgow. Because of the poor weather we requested assistance from the Coastguard, and the patient was transferred directly to the hospital by helicopter."
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