AN EXPECTANT mum had to be rushed home from a European holiday on a private medical jet after her baby decided to arrive three months early.

Kelly Fisk, 28, believes her baby daughter Sadie May wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for the dramatic rescue by the crew of the AirMed plane who rushed her home from Spain when she developed problems six months into her pregnancy.

Mrs Fisk, of Eastfield Road, Noak Bridge, was two days into a week-long family break when she was taken ill in Almeria.

She said: “I was bleeding badly and was in the local hospital for a few days. Eventually they said I could leave, but they weren’t happy about me flying home on the Ryanair plane we were supposed to come home on.”

Mrs Fisk, who has Bupa medical insurance, informed the company of her situation and immediately got a call back telling her a jet was on the way to take her home.

The AirMed jet took off from Murcia airport on Sunday, May 6, with Kelly lying on a stretcher and husband Mark, 29, beside her.

Mrs Fisk, a PA for a London insurance company, said: “I couldn’t believe they’d sent this amazing aircraft for me. It was so glamorous.

“The staff were so lovely. I was frightened, but they put me at ease.”

Mrs Fisk had been given steroid injections in Spain to prevent her from going into labour, but, as the jet crossed the White Cliffs of Dover, her contractions began. A short while later the aircraft touched down at Southend Airport where an ambulance was waiting on the tarmac to rush her to Basildon Hospital.

Seven hours later Sadie May arrived, weighing a miniscule 2lb 10 oz.

The newborn was transferred to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit where she is still being treated in a special incubator for premature babies.

Kelly said: “Although Sadie was so early and small, she is doing well.

“She’s a little fighter.

“A part of me thinks she held out until we were over the UK to make things easier for me. If we’d had to come home on the Ryan Air flight I just don’t know what would have happened as the contractions were coming on strong and I was in bad shape.”

AirMed repatriates very poorly patients to the UK from all over the world. Mrs Fisk’s treatment was arranged through her private health insurance, but the air ambulance is used by the NHS inextreme circumstances.

Mrs Fisk, who also has two- year-old-son Ben, added: “We’ve been told Sadie May won’t come out of hospital before August, which was when she was due to be born.

“But we are taking each day as it comes. She is alive thanks to all these amazing people.”