An Australian backpacker who gave birth after a terrifying 80-hour labor in the ‘low Himalayas’ is seeking government help to return to Australia after falling ill.
India Hodgkins, a 22-year-old backpacker from Brisbane, is showing ‘signs of liver failure’ and the health of her newborn son Neo has become ‘uncertain’.
Ms Hodgkins’ fiancee Jordan Austin, who traveled 8,000km in six days to be with her, says mother and baby are in a race against time and need a ‘bureaucratic wall’ to come down in order to get emergency medical help at home.
“We need the Australian immigration department to recognize the urgency of our situation and allow us to return home now, not in three months,” he wrote in GoFundMe.
Ms Hodgkins did not know she was pregnant until she went into labor while camping in a rice field in Rukum, a mountainous district 280 km west of Kathmandu, Nepal.
Medical appointments in Australia failed to reveal her pregnancy, so the young Brisbane barista went travelling.
India Hodgkins gave birth to baby Neo after a terrifying 80-hour labor that moved from a tent in a rice field to a forest ‘watched by monkeys’ and then a barn, before finally going to a hospital small rural. Pictured: Mrs Hodgkins with Neo and Jordan Austin
Ms Hodgkins, a 22-year-old backpacker from Brisbane, is showing ‘signs of liver failure’ while her baby is also unwell. Austin has pleaded with government authorities to ease the requirements and issue the baby a passport so they can receive medical attention quickly.
Ms Hodgkins’ 80-hour ordeal began in a rice field in Rukum, Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas (pictured)
After months of bloating and vomiting, she was convinced she had a tropical illness she couldn’t shake — until her waters suddenly broke in late September.
“We thought of everything from iron deficiency to gluten intolerance to digestive problems and even water-borne bacteria,” said Ms Hodgkins’ partner Jordan Austin.
It wasn’t until her waters broke that she realized the dramatic miscalculation she and her doctors had made.
Now Mr Austin is pleading with the Australian government to fast-track Neo’s Australian citizenship approval so the trio can return home to Queensland.
Austin claimed staff at the Australian embassy in Kathmandu told him and India to apply for citizenship online for their baby.
But because the Nepalese authorities issued a birth certificate without a name and the Australian government needs the baby’s name on the document, the family has been left in limbo.
“My son Neo Dundalli Tal Austin is 14 days old at the time of writing. We are currently in Kathmandu, Nepal and cannot return to Australia as (he) is without a passport,” Austin wrote.
This process can take three months, a wait that could be life-threatening for the mother and son, whose condition has become ‘uncertain’.
“Since birth, both the baby and the mother have had health complications,” he said.
“India is showing signs of liver failure and extremely low iron levels, beyond anemic levels.
“She lost her vision completely, blacking out for more than 5 minutes and almost passed out.
Austin said the couple face a “bureaucratic brick wall” from the Australian government
“Neo was born with severe jaundice and no ultrasound or knowledge of whether he was premature or not.”
But Mr Austin said the couple face a “bureaucratic brick wall” before they can get on a plane to come home for the medical care they so desperately need.
“The Australian embassy in Kathmandu is largely indifferent to our situation,” he said.
Ms Hodgkins’ epic and ‘intense’ three-day labor began when her waters broke while she was camping in a rice field in Rukum with 50 other people.
She tried to stay in her tent, but when it became too hot, she slowly walked with friends to a nearby forest, where she lay in agony, watched by ‘monkeys’. Courier mail reported.
She returned to the rice field, then to a nearby hotel, then to a stranger’s barn, before being carried over a flooded river on a stretcher to a medical facility in Mangalsen.’
There finally Mr. Austin nailed it.
He received a text message about becoming a father from a friend of Ms Hodgkins while in Ravenshoe, north Queensland.
He drove for 24 of the next 28 hours, sleeping in a tent near a service station at one point, then took three flights to reach Kathmandu before taking two overnight bus trips to get there .
Austin traveled over 8,000km from far north Queensland to reach his fiancee India Hodgkins in Nepal, where he was born.
Mr Austin started a fundraiser to keep the young family ‘afloat’ financially while they wait for the Australian government to process the baby’s citizenship forms.
Ms Hodgkins’ parents have joined the couple in Nepal and it is believed the family have the ‘means’ to travel home but want financial support for medical care while overseas.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said consular assistance was being offered to an Australian family in Nepal.
She declined to comment further due to privacy obligations.
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