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Family dynamics

17th Jul 2018

Dublin couple’s heartbreaking call for support to get their premature twins home to Ireland

They're looking for your help.

Denise Curtin

Pat Carroll, a father-of-three from Dublin, has created a GoFundMe page in the hope to raise money to get his premature twins back to Ireland.

On June 18, 2018, Pat’s twins Sara and Sam were born prematurely in Ukraine through surrogacy. An unexpected arrival at 29 weeks, Pat and his partner, Una, had to drop everything to fly over to Ukraine to be with their newborn twins and their surrogate as she gave birth.

Spending the past three weeks flying back and forth, sorting out paperwork and documentation while their twins receive care in ICU, has not been easy for the pair. And now, Pat has been told that the twins could need more medication and a blood transfusion due to their early birth but, the language barrier and isolation is proving difficult and the couple want to get their babies home to Ireland as soon as possible.

Hoping to get them home to Ireland by air ambulance once they sort their emergency documentation, Pat and his partner have been told that the cost of this is €39,000 and therefore, are looking for support from the public to raise the necessary funds.

In the past three days, Pat’s GoFundMe page has raised €11,000 by 224 contributors to help bring Sara and Sam home. This, unfortunately, is still €28,000 short of their €40,000 goal and they need your help.

Speaking on his GoFundMe page, Pat said:

“The language barrier is very difficult here and we have no family and friends here to help us. We really want to get them home by air Ambulance once we get their emergency documents. The cost of this is 39,000. I would appreciate everyone’s help at this stage as we do not have the funds ourselves. Thank you”

Pat also shared an image of the confined room with no AC, where he has spent the past three weeks as he tries to get his children home to Dublin.

You can check out the GoFundMe page here.

We have reached out to Pat for more information.