THE GOVERNMENT LEARJET has been used to bring Meadhbh McGivern home from London this evening, as the Leitrim teenager continues her recovery from a liver transplant.

The jet transported McGivern and her family home from the Royal Air Force base at Northholt, in the west of the city, to Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnell, arriving at 5.10pm this evening.

The McGiverns had been transported to the base by road from King’s Hospital in London, where she underwent a liver transplant 25 days ago.

The jet had been deployed to Northholt earlier in the day, when a patient and HSE team had been transferred this morning.

McGivern’s case had become prominent when she was forced to turn down the offer of a liver transplant precisely 100 days ago, when transport to bring her to London could not be arranged in time.

An Air Corps helicopter had been arranged to bring Meadhbh to London from a location in Sligo, but a lapse in communications meant appropriate transport had not been arranged to get Maedhbh to London in time.

A report published in August identified four ‘critical decisions’ which had led to the cancelled transplant operation.

The two missions carried out by the Air Corps today mark its 56th and 57th air ambulance missions this year.