A gofundme appeal is busily raising money for a young American family “trapped in Portugal with newborns”.
Kim and Fred Spratt arrived in Lisbon two weeks ago, on a “babymoon” – the last holiday they thought they would have together before the arrival of their twin babies due in August.
But Kim found herself having pains as she stepped off “a sunset cruise” in the capital, after already having visited Barcelona, Granada and Seville.
Hours later at Lisbon’s Alfredo Costa maternity hospital, with Fred “forced to be in another room”, Kim gave birth to their tiny son Hudson Charles, weighing just 793.7 grams.
Minutes later came daughter Hayden Grace, 652 grams – and ever since “the babies have been fighting for their lives – in a foreign country”.
An article on the couple’s plight describes the babies as being in the neonatal intensive care units “with tubes, wires and everything beeping and blinking. They’re too unstable to be touched, so Kim and Fred have yet to hold their children”.
The young couple is even unsure whether the babies will survive, but they are also finding the day to day consequences of their enforced stay incredibly difficult.
Thus Americans are being urged to give in an appeal that had amassed over €22,000 in just 12 days.
Meantime, the Spratts are having some special moments in what has otherwise been a nightmare. “They saw their son’s eyes open for the first time” last week, and they feel their daughter “is following close behind”.
For more on the appeal: see http://www.gofundme.com/u6xg3c
