Alice Springs family leave QLD hospital after twin boys born 10 weeks premature at height of COVID-19

ALICE Springs family whose twin boys were born premature in Brisbane are now ready to leave the hospital after 84 days care and journey home. Samantha Hacon lives and works in Alice Springs as a nurse, and has been reunited with her husband Tim and newborns Matthew and Richard, born on Thursday April 30, after they have spent the last 84 days at Brisbane’s Mater Mothers’ Neo-Natal Critical Care Unit. They will now make the journey home to Alice Springs. The couple were six weeks pregnant when they discovered Sam was carrying twins. “After suffering through two miscarriages all we wanted to see at that scan was a heartbeat, they were able to find it and then suddenly there were two,” Sam said. “I have two beautiful stepchildren and we were so excited for them to have a younger sibling, finding out they were getting two so amazing and special,” she said. For Sam her pregnancy was going well, however when she was 27 weeks the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in the country and travel restrictions were beginning to be implemented between states. Sam chose Dr Charlotte Mooring for the birth after her brother and his wife had a wonderful experience with her managing their pregnancy remotely. Sam went to the Gold Coast where her parents live with Tim planning on joining her a few weeks later closer to the C-section date, however her membranes ruptured at 30 weeks. “Dr Charlotte came to see me and advised the babies were going to need to come out that day and we should proceed with a C-section as soon as possible,” she said. “I knew this would be very stressful for Tim as one of his other children was born premature,” she said. Neonatologist Dr Callum Gately helped prepare Sam about going forward with the babies care. Sam says it was a lovely experience and she could not have asked for a better team to be supporting her. “I didn’t really believe in the whole love at first sight but as soon as I saw them I had the whole love rush came to me.” LIMITED TIME – Discounted Centralian Advocate subscription: Read everything for $1 “Fortunately, Tim was granted special permission on compassionate grounds and did not have to quarantine,” she said. While in NCCU the family faced a few hurdles with the boys needing extra attention from time to time. “The words thank you to everybody involved (Mater and Queensland Children’s Hospital were amazing) will never actually be enough for what we have been given,” she said.