No NHS cot for premature tot born on holiday STRANDED

“I was hysterical at times on the phone to our hospital begging them for help, but all they said was, ‘There’s no beds. There’s nothing we can do’.”

The couple were finally offered a cot at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill and the family were flown home after more than a week of delays.

Jade’s nightmare began when she began to get stomach cramps. She said: “I went to hospital and was shocked when the doctor told me I was going to have my baby in an hour. I was like, ‘You’ve got this wrong’.

“Then a doctor came in and said our baby would probably not survive. He said there was a 50 per cent chance in a good hospital, but with the facilities they had, it was unlikely.”

Jade, who cannot speak Spanish, says she was given no pain relief and her two midwives did not speak English. When Rocco was born in the early hours of May 11 at the islands’s Puerto del Rosario Hospital, doctors whisked him away.

Jade said: “We had no idea if he’d survived or not. He l ooked purple when he came out and I’d thought the worst – then he cried and that gave me hope.

“The doctor said if he survived the first two hours they would call for an air ambulance to take him to Gran Canaria. We couldn’t take it all in.”

After waiting an agonising three hours with no news, the couple heard a helicopter. Jade said: “It was the only way we knew he’d survived.

“Hardly any people could speak English. Later someone came in and said he’d arrived in Gran Canaria, but that’s all they could say.

“I had to get people back home who spoke Spanish to ring the hospital to try to find out what was going on.”

Jade, who works at an auction software company, and Jay, 37, raced to the airport to join Rocco at Materno Infantil hospital in Las Palmas.

Jade said: “He was so tiny and in an incubator, hooked up to breathing apparatus and being tube fed. He wasn’t feeding well – then they found a heart murmur.”

Rocco had a condition called patent arterial duct, which meant his blood flow was abnormal and his organs did not work properly.

But after heart surgery on June 20 he improved quickly.

Jade said: “The doctors and nurses out there were amazing, they saved Rocco’s life. He was like a different baby. He started feeding and getting bigger.

“The doctor in Gran Canaria signed him off as stable enough to fly to the UK – we were so excited to be able to go home. We had no idea we’d still be stranded here.”

Jade says Axa, her holiday insurance company, told them the air ambulance would be unable to take them to their local hospital as there was no space for new tots.

She said: “I phoned East Surrey and said we needed to come home. They just told us there was nothing they could do. So we phoned around other hospitals on Axa’s advice, but they all said we weren’t their responsibility. “That’s when we contacted the Sunday People. A bed became available on the Monday.” Within two days the arrangements were in place, and Rocco was flown to the neo-natal unit at East Surrey Hospital. He is now home with Jade and Jay. Jade, of Merstham, near Redhill, said: “I can’t fault the care Rocco got there, the staff are fantastic. I really feel for them because I can see how overstretched they are. “In Gran Canaria we didn’t have to buy a thing for Rocco, but here we had to bring everything – blankets, nappies, even cotton wool. The nurse said it was cutbacks.” Now the couple, who racked up £ 9,000 on credit cards during the 56-day nightmare, are hoping Axa will cover the cost. Jade said: “I wish we’d never gone – I’d warn pregnant women not to travel. It’s not worth the risk.”

AXA said: “There was a short delay getting the Shrubsoles home while we waited for passport documents for Rocco and the right specialist hospital care to become available in the UK.

“Before repatriating we have to be certain customers can continue their treatment effectively at home.”

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs East Surrey Hospital, said: “Our priority was the safety and wellbeing of Rocco.

“The neonatal unit at East Surrey was at capacity. The decision to divert to other providers is a last resort.”