Four-day-old Tamatoa Inglemells may die in a Samoan hospital if his parents can't scramble together the $100,000 they need to get him on a medical flight back to New Zealand.
On Monday the Herald broke the story of how the Kiwi baby was born a month premature, two days after
his pregnant mother had fled for her life from the tsunami from the Savaii island.
After a visit to a local clinic, a hospital in Savaii and a ferry ride across to Samoa's main island, Upolu, Tamatoa is now in Apia's Matootua Hospital. He is hooked up to oxygen and an intravenous drip pumping antibiotics into him.
But despite doctors doing all they can in Samoa, the hospital is not equipped with the correct tools to keep him alive and Tamatoa needs specialist care at Auckland's Starship hospital.
The baby yesterday "took a turn" and stopped breathing but the hospital does not have resuscitation devices. Although he did pull through using oxygen, he could not have been so lucky.
"It's touch and go," his mother Sarah Roberts told the Herald from Apia.
"If he stops breathing then that's it. But he doesn't need to die."
Tamatoa is being fed breast milk through a tube in his mouth but he is not taking it well and needs to have a tube inserted into his stomach to give him more food.
Kiwi doctors in Samoa to help with tsunami victims have said he needs to get back to Auckland on a medevac flight. The estimated cost is about $100,000.
Ms Roberts, an occupational therapist, and her partner Richard Ingamells, a muscian, do not have that sort of money lying around.
Tamatoa is too sick to travel aboard a commercial flight and the Air Force planes are not equipped to take him.
"There's nothing else they can do for him here," Mrs Roberts said.
"They feel helpless. He's in such a vulnerable position and he doesn't need to be."
She said she did not have travel insurance as she did not expect to go into labour so early.
"My other son was two weeks overdue," she said.
"I just want to take him home."
Mrs Roberts and Mr Ingamells, who live in Waitakere City, had on Wednesday ran from the Vacations Beach Fales in the village of Manase when a tourist told them a tsunami may follow an earthquake they'd felt about an hour before.
The pair ran inland, collecting a few cuts and bruises and losing their jandals in knee-deep water along the way.
The couple believe Ms Roberts may have had Tamatoa early because of the stress caused by the escape.
How to donate to tsunami relief operations:
Pacific Cooperation Foundation
Deposits can be made at at any Westpac branch. All the money raised will go to the Samoan Government
Red Cross
- Make a secure online donation at redcross.org.nz
- Send cheques to the Samoan Red Cross Fund, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
- Call 0900 31 100 to make an automatic $20 donation
- Make a donation at any NZ Red Cross office
ANZ bank
Make a donation at any ANZ bank branch, or donate directly to the ANZ appeal account: 01 1839 0143546 00
Oxfam
- Make a secure online donation at Oxfam.org.nz
- Phone 0800 400 666 or make an automatic $20 donation by calling 0900 600 20
Caritas
- Make a secure online donation at Caritas.org.nz
- Phone 0800 22 10 22 or make an automatic $20 donation by calling 0900 4 11 11
TEAR fund
- Make a secure online donation at tearfund.co.nz
- Phone 0800 800 777 to specify Samoa the Philippines or Indonesia. You can also donate at CD and DVD stores.
Mercury Energy
- Donate at mercury.co.nz
or text the word Samoa followed by the amount you wish to pledge and your Mercury account number to 515 or by calling 0800 10 18 10.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity is asking for help with the clean-up habitat.org.nz
