UK couple facing £130,000 medical bill after having premature baby in New York finally return home

Baby Dax was just 3lb when he was born 11 weeks early and the couple have had to wait for him to become strong enough to fly home

Baby Dax has been flown home (Facebook)

Baby Dax, who was born 11 weeks prematurely in December while his parents were on a five day trip to New York, has finally been flown back to the UK.

Parents Katie Amos and Lee Johnston had at first been stranded in the Big Apple when Dax was born, facing a £130,000 medical bill that they couldn’t pay. Their baby weighed just 3lb and doctors told the family they would not be able to fly home until March.

After the couple launched a Go Get Funding page and their friends and family rallied round to find money to help with the six figure bill, the hospital began liaising with insurers to ensure the bill was covered.

But seven weeks after Dax’s birth on 28 December, the staff at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York told the family they would finally be able to return home, the Telegraph reported.

Amos, 30, said of the news: “When we were finally given the all clear to come home I broke down in tears, we were so happy, no words could describe it.”

Before they could leave, Dax had to have his passport photo taken, which meant having his feeding and breathing tubes temporarily removed. They flew home on Friday on a medical plane, with Dax in an incubator, and transferred to another hospital when they arrived.

The couple managed to raise over £11,000 through their crowd-funding campaign, which they said will be used to cover their living costs in New York and their bills back at home, and to pay for their accommodation at the Ronald McDonald foundation, which housed them while they were in New York.