Louis Borrill and fiancee Yeridiana Chazares were shocked when little Lily was born weighing just 1lb, 11oz, well ahead of her November due date – and may not be discharged from 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.
Now the north Lincolnshire-based couple are stuck in Baltimore until Lily is well enough to go home, meaning they are facing months of expensive medical and hotel bills.
A GoFundMe has been launched to help them cover the costs.
Louis and Yeridiana had been visiting her family in Baltimore for a surprise baby shower but the mother-to-be woke the following morning with a strong fever.
After hours of hospital scans, doctors said Yeridiana was actually in pre-term labour.
They said the waiting period could have been anywhere between a few hours to a few months, and they would have stay in hospital until the baby was born.
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.
‘Our beautiful Lily decided she had enough of waiting around and came to us two days after her baby shower and three months earlier than we expected.’
With Lily being born so premature, she was not moving and could not breathe and needed a breathing tube fitted to save her life.
Since then, Lily has stopped breathing twice and had to be resuscitated last week after having a heart murmur, which doctors hoped could be treated with medication.
Lily also still has a vessel called a Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) which babies lose when they are born and is set to be reviewed to determine if she needs further surgeries.
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.
‘All day I blamed myself, thinking that if maybe I had done something differently Lily would have made it to full term. I can’t understand how she was so active during her baby shower and two days later I had to deliver her urgently.
‘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 10 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.’
Louis and Yeri have set up an online GoFundMe page to help them meet care and hospital bills.
He said: ‘Any help whether it be a share or a donation is widely appreciated in this difficult time. Thank you in advance.’
