WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH
Parents ‘overwhelmed’ by public support after premature births in Spain
DONATIONS have flooded in for a woman who had twins three months early after contracting Covid while on holiday in Spain.
Donors have given more than €18,000 to 25-year-old Galway mother Tori O’Rourke and her partner, Phil Hillier, to cover major medical expenses for their twins, Emily and Jacob.
Jacob had major surgery on both eyes in Crumlin Children’s Hospital yesterday and doctors say they are happy with his progress.
The couple told the Irish Daily Mail that they have been overwhelmed by the contributions on the GoFundMe donor website as well as the help they have
‘We can’t thank people enough’
received from friends in Kinvara, Co. Galway. ‘We can’t thank people enough,’ Tori said.
Tori was due to give birth at Christmas and, in August, she and Phil went to Malaga, Spain for a ‘babymoon’. However, a few days later, Tori was feeling unwell and went to a Spanish hospital where she was told she had Covid.
They released her but her condition got worse. When she returned to hospital, doctors decided to deliver her babies by Caesarian – at 24 weeks.
Tori said she started to recover a couple of days after the twins were born – but wasn’t allowed to see them for weeks.
The couple were ‘scared and very stressed’ and the language barrier made it difficult to get information about the twins.
After two-and-a-half months in Spain, the family was finally allowed to return home and the twins were taken to the neonatal intensive care unit at Galway Hospital.
A GoFundMe appeal has raised over €18,000 of its €20,000 goal; €10,000 will be used for the twins’ medical expenses and €10,000 for accommodation and transportation costs incurred in Spain.
Speaking from Crumlin Children’s Hospital, Tori said doctors were happy with how Jacob’s surgery, which was for weakness in the blood vessels in his eyes, had gone.
‘He is stable at the moment but is still on a ventilator so cannot be transported back to Galway just yet,’ she said. While Emily is doing ‘very well’ and may be ready to come home within a few days, her parents are unsure whether to wait and bring both twins home together.
‘I would love to thank the nurses and all of the staff in the NICU in Galway University hospital, they have been amazing and the care my twins are receiving is second to none,’ Tori said.
You can donate to the appeal at: gofundme.com/f/m7r9h9help-us-bring-our-twins-home