December 2002 Volume 83 Number 12 "serving the protectors"
Police babes saved in SA
By John Ballantyne

A holidaying Queensland police couple have been unexpectedly stranded in South Australia after the premature birth of their twins.

The twins – born three-and-a-half months prematurely – have been in intensive care in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, North Adelaide, since their birth in October.

Their parents, Senior Constable John and Constable Hélène Delandelles, during their enforced stay in Adelaide, might have been without a roof over their heads, had an SA police officer not come to their rescue with an offer of accommodation at Fort Largs.

In normal times, the Delandelleses work as Queensland police officers – John in the Metropolitan North Region of Brisbane, and Hélène in the North Coast Region (the lower part of the Sunshine Coast).

The miracle twins Jaime (left) and Charlie, next to her father’s hand with his wedding ring around her wrist, in intensive care.

When Hélène visited her obstetrician in September for a 19-week scan of the expected twins, there was no premonition of the ordeal that lay ahead of the couple.

The obstetrician raised no objection to the couple’s plans in September to make a journey by car to Mildura, Victoria, to attend the wedding of one of Hélène’s best friends.

On the night of Tuesday, October 8 – a few days after their arrival in Mildura – Hélène had gone to bed, feeling fine. But, after midnight, she started suffering severe cramps.

The next morning, after a sleepless night, she experienced bleeding and renewed cramps.

Although her twins were not due for three-and-a-half months – Australia Day, January 26, 2003, to be precise – Hélène nevertheless carefully timed her cramp attacks, just in case they might be contractions.

On John’s insistence they went at once to the Mildura Base Hospital, where specialists told Hélène that she had gone into premature labour.

Hélène – a bit dazed by the suddenness of events – was taken aback when she was told that she would have to be flown immediately by the Royal Flying Doctors Service to Adelaide for emergency medical care.

Before the trip, however, the Mildura specialists gave Hélène special medication to try to halt the onset of labour, and also steroid treatment to help the babies’ lungs develop further.

The medication disagreed with Hélène whose heartbeat started racing wildly.

A few hours later, however, she was at last safely ensconced in North Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

For a brief time it looked as though the labour pains had subsided, but the very next day (Thursday) the contractions resumed.

That evening doctors gave Hélène a general anaesthetic and, for the sake of the safety of the underdeveloped twins, delivered them by Caesarean section rather than natural birth.

Just before 11:30pm Hélène gave birth to two baby girls, Jaime (at 680 grams) and Charlie (700 grams).

During these two anxious days, did John and Hélène find that their police experience had prepared them for handling such an emergency?

“Normally, when you’re at work,” says John, “you’re in control of situations, whereas here, we’re police sitting back, hoping that the people who are helping us know exactly what they’re doing!”

Hélène laughs: “We’re probably both control freaks. And it was awful to be out of control. There’s nothing we could do about it!”

After the birth, however, the emergency was far from over. For the next 72 tension-fraught hours, no one could be certain that the twins would survive.

At this stage the Delandelleses were so preoccupied with their immediate crisis that they had scarcely considered where they were going to stay in Adelaide while their newborns were confined in intensive care.

A return home to Queensland was out of the question for the foreseeable future.

While they were pondering their plight, some well-wishers called in to see them.

Queensland Police Union representative and serving police officer, Peter Garrels, happened to be in Adelaide during October 15-16 as an interstate delegate to the Police Association of SA’s annual conference.

He took time off to visit the stranded couple and to inform them of special emergency loans for union members in desperate straits.

SA police chaplain David Marr called in on them too.

PASA secretary Andy Dunn learned of the Delandelleses’ plight and arranged accommodation for them in various association-owned units in the city whenever they fell vacant.

But the couple’s need for longer-term accommodation still posed a problem.

A social worker at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Jayne Rickard, provided crucial help at this stage. She made some inquiries among her Rotary friends – one of whom happened to be Radio 5AA announcer, Tony Pilkington.

John recalls: “He (Pilkington) put out a broadcast basically for any people who could help these poor Queensland coppers with accommodation while they’re here.”

One of Pilkington’s listeners on that fateful day was Jill Minagall, wife of Fort Largs Police Academy boss, Superintendent John Minagall.

She immediately contacted her husband about the couple’s plight, and that same day John Minagall contacted the Delandelleses to announce that he had a vacant house which they could use for as long as they needed it.

Minagall recalls: “It was just by chance (that) it was vacant at the time… so we were delighted to make it available.”

The Delandelleses have nothing but praise for Minagall and his timely intervention. Hélène describes him as “a lovely fellow”, and John says that he “cannot give enough praise about this fellow. He has been the greatest help to us since we’ve been here, making our accommodation comfortable and even making his office available so that we can send e-mails to our family and colleagues.”

John and Hélène have been duly impressed by their experience of South Australia, starting with the professionalism of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital – especially that of the hospital’s chief obstetrician, Dr Brian Peat, his specialist colleagues, and the midwives and nurses.

The premature twins still have a number of hurdles to overcome as they “graduate” from intensive care (where they have been on special ventilators to help them breathe), then through various grades of special care, and finally to the parenting unit just before they are ready to go home.

Jaime has had to undergo surgery to close a duct near her heart, and Charlie has had to be treated with steroids to overcome chronic lung problems.

They may not be ready to go home to Queensland before mid-January.

But during their ordeal, the Delandelleses have remained optimistic, assured throughout of the unstinting support of their police colleagues in SA.

About this support Hélène says: “You definitely have this feeling of one big family… It’s just amazing. It’s a wonderful feeling to be a part of it and to be taken care of (as) we have been…

“The support from the South Australian police has been overwhelming… I don’t know what we would have done, really, without (their) help… It’s allowed us to concentrate on the girls.”

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