Community aiding twin preemies
Vincent, Tinnley born three months early to Omemee couple
Each day, premature twins Tinnley and Vincent Gray from Omemee are defying the odds as they fight for survival inside the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Born three months premature, Tinnley and Vincent are being cared for around the clock by a team of nurses and doctors. All their parents Jenn McCall, 30, and Alfie Gray, 35, can do is wait and hope their little ones get stronger and heal.
Both McCall and Gray have been in Toronto since their twins were born on Sept. 29. With no income coming in, their friends have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help them with travel, parking and other expenses as they stay at Ronald McDonald House.
As of Tuesday night, the fund had raised $1,870 in six days from 29 donors toward a goal of $4,000.
McCall said she’s grateful her friends are willing to help, adding any donation eases the financial burden she and her partner are facing.
She was working at Caressant Care in Lindsay up until she went into labour on Sept. 29, 26 weeks and six days before her due date on Dec. 30, McCall said.
Gray was working at a dairy farm in Cavan, but he has opted to stay in Toronto to be near his children and partner.
“It’s just been very stressful,” McCall said.
McCall was at her uncle’s funeral when she started having pains in her abdomen. As the pain became worse and more pronounced, McCall decided to go to the emergency department at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. She underwent a series of tests and a short time later a doctor told her she was going to deliver her babies that day.
A little over two hours later Vincent was born weighing only two pounds and six ounces.
Three minutes later his twin sister Tinnley was delivered, weighing only one pound, 11 ounces.
“Both had a natural birth,” McCall said.
Within the hour a team from Sick Kids arrived at the PRHC to help with the twins. The PRHC isn’t equipped to handle premature babies so early in the pregnancy, McCall said. There also wasn’t enough time to get her to Sick Kids to deliver the babies there, she said.
“I think there were 18 people in the delivery room,” McCall said.
The staff at PRHC did an outstanding job stabilizing the twins before the Sick Kids team arrived, Gray stated in an email.
“They are a big part of the reason why Vincent is alive and doing better today. Vincent had (a) bacterial infection which was the cause of the premature labour,” Gray stated.
Vincent’s health was worse than his sister’s, McCall said. When he was born he had a brain hemorrhage.
“We thought we’d only have 12 hours with him,” McCall said.
However, Vincent has defied the odds and is currently in stable condition at Sick Kids. He was airlifted there about five hours after he was born.
Tinnley also had health problems. She had a heart murmur and bleeding in her lungs. She was taken to Sick Kids by ambulance not long after her brother went by helicopter.
Tinnley is also in stable condition, McCall said. She and Gray had a chance to hold her for the first time on Sunday.
“It was amazing,” said McCall, adding she was expecting to hold Vincent on Tuesday.
Although Vincent and Tinnley are improving, McCall says they are still living day-by-day, adding some days are better than others. Regardless, McCall says she will stay in Toronto until Vincent and Tinnley are healthy enough to be transferred back to Peterborough. McCall says that could take as long as three months.
In the meantime, money raised through the GoFundMe campaign by McCall’s friend Sheena Moore will help with expenses, both in Toronto and at home in Omemee.
“They need to be by their babies’ sides every day at this ever so difficult time,” writes Moore on the GoFundMe page. “Jenn, Alfie and the Gray twins need all the love and support and prayers during this time.”
NOTE: To donate visit www.gofundme.com/helpsupport-tinnley-and-vincent