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<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'">Gelareh Parandian gets a visit from her husband, Warren Scott, and 3-year-old son, Warren, at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is pregnant with twins and was rushed back from a Jamaican vacation after her water broke prematurely.</span></span>
When Gelareh Parandian’s water broke, her young family’s last-minute Jamaican getaway turned into a complete nightmare.
Twenty-four weeks pregnant with twins, Parandian, 37, flew south for some rest with her husband, Warren Scott, 41, and their 3-year-old son. Her first son was born prematurely, but since these babies weren’t due till June — at the earliest — her doctor, a specialist, gave her the OK to fly.
Three days into the vacation, she went into labour.
“One day we’re having a great time, we’re dancing, we’re swimming,” Scott said. “The same night, we wake up and it’s a complete nightmare.”
The Gran Bahia Principe Jamaica resort’s nurse called a local doctor, who arranged for an ambulance to take them from Runaway Bay to the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, a 90-minute drive.
Before they left, the doctor demanded a credit card payment of $800. He gave Scott a receipt for $1,000.
“At that point I was in no position to question. Money was the last thing on my mind,” Scott said.
Upfront payment is typical in Jamaica, where medical expenses can be very high, according to the Canadian government’s travel report.
With Parandian strapped into a gurney, they sped off.
Scott, a former driver in the military, noticed the driver was going quite fast — too fast. As they approached a curve, he felt the driver losing control.
The straps on the gurney released as the ambulance smashed into a guard rail, sending Parandian flying into the back door, pressed up “like an accordion,” Scott said.
She injured her neck and tailbone. Their son had a bloody nose, the paramedic had a severe head injury, the driver broke his leg and the doctor cracked his collarbone and three ribs, said a relatively uninjured Scott, who runs Fitness Bound, a personal training business.
A Good Samaritan came to the rescue and drove the family, along with the doctor, to the hospital. It wasn’t like any Canadian facility Scott had ever seen, he said.
“Every door was chained and barred, there was security everywhere, there were people crying to get into the hospital.”
But that was nothing compared to the doctor’s judgment of what would happen if Parandian went into labour. The twins, a boy and a girl, would need a special neonatal facility for very premature babies, one the hospital did not have. (Jamaica does have such a facility, but across the island in Kingston.)
“With this facility, with the limited resources, the chances of survival here is zero. They will not survive,” Scott remembers the doctor telling him.
Luckily, the couple had travel insurance. Standard Life paid the entire travel bill. (Most companies insure women up to between 28 and 31 weeks of pregnancy.)
A “handful” of incidents like this happen yearly, Standard Life manager Jean-Guy Gauthier explained, so the company has a network of commercial airlines to call. A Montreal air ambulance with two incubators and a team of medics flew Parandian back to Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital the next day, where Scott’s longtime client helped arrange support.
Just as the family thought they were out of trouble, doctors told them that babies born at 24 weeks have a 30- to 50-per-cent chance of survival, with risks of severe complications such as cerebral palsy.
For now, the babies appear to be fine. Parandian is “doing great” as doctors work to keep her pregnant as long as possible. The baby girl’s amniotic sac is leaking, but it has replenished enough to keep her safe. Now 25 weeks along, the twins have a 70-per-cent chance of survival if they are born.
Scott’s family is in good spirits and thankful to be back in Toronto with the team of doctors and nurses at Mt. Sinai.
Theirs is a cautionary tale for those thinking about before-baby vacations, Scott said. Buy travel insurance and stay at a hotel near the best medical facility, or rethink the trip altogether.
“I would not wish this on my worst enemy,” he said. “I would not do it again — I would have just stayed home.”
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smaddy can bad lucky so...
bad enought the ambulance crash but dacta mash up, baby madda get fling weh almost go choo the door is only by the grace of God junior didnt jump out and say "hey wats all this rackit" 
why do they search what they searching for at that hospital.
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