A couple has been left stuck in the US with extortionate medical bills after their baby was born three months early while on holiday.
Little Lily arrived much earlier than her due date of November 2019 at just 1 lb, 11 oz. Parents Louis Borrill and Yeridiana Chazares were shocked to learn that she might not be permitted to leave the hospital for up to four months.
Before their 10-day US trip, the parents decided against taking out medical insurance as they were quoted £4,000 due to Yeridiana being pregnant.
The couple from North Lincolnshire is stranded in Baltimore until Lily is well enough to return home, they will have to pay months’ worth of high medical and lodging costs.
Louis said: “With Yeri being six months pregnant, we decided to play it safe and go to the hospital. We were then informed that Yeri wasn’t experiencing a Fever – she was in pre-term labour!”
Doctors determined that Yeri would not be able to leave the hospital following hours of scans. The physicians informed Louis and Yeri that despite being in pre-term labor, this waiting period might have lasted anywhere from a few hours to a few months, with them needing to stay in the hospital throughout that time.
But at 8.18am on August 6, tiny baby Lily was born. Louis said: ‘I don’t even know how I could possibly describe that 24-hour period. We were scrambling around trying to figure out what we had to do and were both obviously very nervous.
‘But we knew we had to remain calm, knowing our baby could come at any point.
‘Three months sooner than we had anticipated and two days after her baby shower, our lovely Lily decided she had had enough of waiting and came to us.’
With Lily being born so premature, she was not moving and could not breathe and needed a breathing tube fitted to save her life.
Lily has been breathing ever since, despite having some difficult days. She had a heart murmur last week, which a medication was supposed to be able to treat, but when she stopped breathing twice, she needed to be resuscitate.
Due to being so premature, Lily also still has a vessel called a Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), which babies lose when they are born. She is set to be reviewed by a cardiologist who will determine if she will need further surgeries after being checked.
Yeridiana recalled the trauma of watching her first-born child put in an incubator and receiving round-the-clock specialist care.
She said: ‘Having contractions and a c-section don’t compare to the pain I felt seeing my first-born in an incubator covered in tubes and tinier than I could have ever imagined.
“Nonetheless, we appreciate everyone’s love and support, we truly do. The doctors say Lily is doing great breathing, moving, and hopefully getting stronger and stronger. I can’t wait to have her home.’
The couple said doctors had told them Lily would not be ‘out of the woods’ until around three or four months before being allowed to go home to Scunthorpe.
Louis said: “We did not have medical insurance as it was around £4,000 because Yeri was pregnant, just for those ten days. The risk of not paying for this backfired.”
He added: “I’m so proud of my little fighter, she’s doing really well at the moment and I’m sure in the next few months, she will continue to do so.”
“I am so proud of Yeri. She handled everything so perfectly and was incredible.”
