'Babymoon' vacation ends with heartbreaking result

A couple on their "babymoon" overseas had the unthinkable happen — the mom gave birth to twins in Portugal, 13 weeks before they were due.

Kim Kirzow Spratt and her husband, Fred Spratt, of Jackson, N.J., had planned their final getaway as a family of two, with doctors' approval. She was getting bigger but wasn't having any complications.

Everybody knew she was having twins, and the babies were due Aug. 25.

"We're trying to hit spots on our bucket list every year, so we picked Portugal," Kim Spratt said. "The doctor gave me 100% clearance, and we got total reassurance. We even got a letter for the airline in case there were any problems."

She last saw her doctors two days before they departed May 2. On the Spanish leg of their trip, she and her husband started in Barcelona and then headed to Grenada and Seville.

Lisbon, Portugal — almost 3,500 miles from home — was their final stop.

"We got there at 11:40 a.m. and did normal stuff," Kim Spratt said. "We checked in, walked around. We took a sunset cruise and got on the boat about 8 p.m. About an hour into the cruise, I said, 'I don't really feel that well.' I had some cramping, and I thought it was maybe Braxton Hicks (false-labor uterine) contractions. Then, I got really thirsty and hungry but had no appetite."

They decided to rest back at the hotel, but nothing was improving. In fact, her condition was getting worse.

"My legs start shaking uncontrollably," Kim Spratt said. "But I never thought it could be labor."

At that point, her husband decided it was time to get help. They were sent to the hospital Maternidade Alfredo da Costa, about 2½ miles inland from Lisbon's harbor.

"They didn't want to treat me because we didn't have our passports with us," Kim Spratt said. "That was the last thing we were thinking about grabbing.

"I gave a woman my license, and she disappeared. I couldn't even sit at this point," she said. "They wouldn't let me get drink, go to bathroom. The babies weren't moving as much, and I was getting really nervous."

Complicating the matter: Most of the conversation was happening in Portuguese, a language neither of the Spratts could speak.

An initial worry that doctors couldn't hear the fetal heartbeats was a false alarm, but additional examination revealed that she was in the late stages of labor, dilated at 7 centimeters. She was admitted to the hospital at 12:03 a.m. on Mother's Day and gave birth to her son 11 minutes later.

Hudson Charles Spratt weighed 1 pound, 12 ounces.

Daughter Hayden Grace Spratt entered the world a few minutes later and weighed 1 pound, 7 ounces.

Since then the babies had been fighting for their lives. But on Memorial Day, while others back in the USA were planning picnics, the Spratts had to deal with Hudson's death; now only Hayden survives, still in the neonatal intensive care unit.

"Everyone spoke Portuguese, so I had no clue what was going on," Kim Spratt said. "The only thing I understood was 'breathe,' which a nurse kept repeating. Afterward, everyone kept saying how tiny they were and that they would do everything they could to save them."

Fred Spratt wasn't allowed in the delivery room and had to wait in the lobby.

"I was in recovery room with six Portuguese women who all had their babies with them," Kim Spratt said. "It was so hard — women were breastfeeding, babies were crying. Fred was not there."

Both babies were in the neonatal intensive care unit "with tubes, wires and everything beeping and blinking," too unstable to be touched. Only Friday, two days after she turned one month old, were the Spratts able to cradle Hayden, now about 2 pounds, in their arms.

Fred Spratt works in sales while his wife owns her own business in Wall, N.J., and both had what they considered a middle-class life in New Jersey.

For now, they are staying in Lisbon, "trapped here indefinitely" until Hayden is well enough to return to the U.S. on a chartered medical flight, said Kim Spratt, who has had to suspend her personal training because it can't be run remotely. A friend set up a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $30,000 in the past month.

For a while, the Spratts continued to stay at the hotel, the Bario Alto Hotel, where they had checked in the night of the births.

One staff member used his day off to help Fred Spratt search for an apartment, and when the new father found one he liked, the staffer helped negotiate a lease because the landlord didn't speak English.

"The staff has been so generous," Kim Spratt said. "They helped us get a grip on things."