A Murfreesboro optometrist has been stranded in Ireland with her family after giving birth prematurely during a transatlantic flight.
Dr. Jenny Drake and her husband were returning home from an extended business trip in Scotland when she began to go into labor back on October 24.
"I was only 24 weeks pregnant. About an hour into the flight I started having contractions and they (the flight crew) kept asking if I could make it to mainland which was seven hours away and I said ‘no that’s not gonna happen,’" Jenny says
The pilot of the American Airlines flight managed to get the plane to Dublin where paramedics quickly rushed Jenny to a nearby hospital.
"We arrived four minutes at the hospital before she was born," Jenny recalls.
Jenny gave birth to a baby girl, Zoe, who was so small she fit into the palm of her hand. In the weeks since being born prematurely Zoe has come a long way but her lungs haven't, it will likely be months before her lungs and immune system are healthy enough to survive a commercial flight back to the United States.
For now, Jenny and her family are stranded in Ireland.
On Tuesday the family also learned their insurance denied their claim to have a special medical flight fly Zoe back to Tennessee.
"I could come home but I’d be leaving her here," Jenny says about the decision she's still not ready to make.
Complicating the situation even further is Jenny's optometry practice in Murfreesboro, Drake Eyecare and Eyewear.
For three months the office has been operating without Jenny, relying on the kindness of other doctors volunteering their time to see patients in order to stay afloat.
"The longer she stays away the more I feel like the patients may end up going somewhere else. I’m ready for her to come home," office manager Christy Meredith says.
Jenny and her staff have setup a Go Fund Me account to try to raise the cost of a medical flight for baby Zoe, Jenny says Vanderbilt Medical Center is willing to accept Zoe they just need to get her back on U.S. soil.
To help make sure baby Zoe can fly home you can donate to the family's gofundme page.
