INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - A premature newborn is home in the US after his family and their congressman worked to get them out of a hospital in Mexico.
He arrived aboard a jet air ambulance Thursday evening. We watched medics remove a protective incubator carrying the delicate two pound, two-day-old special patient.
A flight that began in Cancun saw a stop-over for Customs in Florida, then baby Beckham Lake Smith-Ralph finally reached his Indiana home for the first time.
Another ambulance carried him to IU Health Riley Hospital for children. His mother Michaela Smith, who delivered by emergency c-section, and dad Larry Ralph, are from Morgan County. Her mother told us they arrived home safely too.
Eyewitness News was the only news team there when relatives got the news in Martinsville that baby Beckham's family would be allowed to leave a hospital in Mexico after two tense days.
In their kitchen, it was high-fives all around.
"That was a long 72-hours,” one family member said.
"This Mexican hospital was extorting this family, continuing to ask for more and more money nearly every hour to release him," said Representative Trey Hollingsworth outside the hospital Thursday evening.
He stepped in to help, getting the State Department involved, getting baby Beckham a US birth certificate and showing there was a hospital he would be released to.
But the final hours held more tense moments.
Back at the home where the couple's families gathered, checking texts and phone calls, came exchanges like this: "Is the State Department officer at the hospital? I don't know yet," a family member said.
Hollingsworth said at one point this afternoon he "thought we'd have to send a security officer to escort them from the premises."
The couple only learned they were expecting in the spring. They'd booked a Mexico vacation months ago and with Michaela not due until fall, they decided to make the trip.
But when she went into labor at 28 weeks, they rushed to a Cancun hospital which allegedly demanded first $7,000, then $37,000. No payment, no release form the hospital, the family said.
"We're over thirty-grand into this and they still want more money," said Beckham's grandmother Elaine Smith.
The same thing happened last summer to Dixie Stinson of Lafayette, in Mexico for a wedding. She needed emergency heart surgery and was told she couldn't leave until they paid up. Their bill reached $100,000. Congressman Todd Rokita's office stepped in that time. Now another family caught up. But the fragile patient, Baby Beckham is home.
A GoFundMe site has been established to assist the family with expenses.
Earlier story
CANCUN, Mexico (WTHR) - A Martinsville family has brought their newborn son home from Cancun after being stuck across the border for a few days.
Larry Ralph and Michaela Smith have been planning a family for several years.
Much to their surprise, they found out this past spring that they were expecting. Doctors gave Michaela a due date of October 15.
Larry and Michaela decided to take a trip to Cancun before their son was born.
During the trip Larry says Michaela began not feeling well. After a trip to a Cancun emergency room, doctors determined Michaela was in labor and an emergency c-section was performed at 28 weeks.
Beckham Lake Smith-Ralph was born Tuesday, weighing about two pounds. Despite breathing problems, Beckham is stable, but needs additional medical care.
Larry and Michaela planned to leave Cancun for Indianapolis as soon as possible to get that additional medical treatment. Family members say hospital officials in Cancun would not release Beckham and Michaela until their hospital bill was paid in full.
That bill started out as $7,000, but has now grown to nearly $37,000.
Family and friends raised an additional $30,000 for an air-medical ambulance to fly to Cancun to bring the family back to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis. The air-medical jet left the United States and arrived in Cancun Thursday morning.
WTHR's Mary Milz was with family members in Martinsville when they got the news baby Beckham and his parents were leaving Cancun and headed back to the United States.
They will first land in Pensacola to go through Customs, then head straight to Riley Hospital for Children.
