VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 29 (UPI) -- An Australian couple have agreed to pay $300 a month for the rest of their lives to a Canadian hospital where their premature daughter was born last summer.
Rachel Evans and John Kan were about to board a flight home to Sydney from Vancouver in August when Evans suddenly went into labor and was taken to the British Columbia Women's Hospital, the Toronto Star reported.
The baby girl, named Piper, was three months premature, weighed just 1 pound, 9 ounces at birth and required three months of neonatal care, the newspaper said. She is now healthy and a normal weight.
Evans, 42, told the Star she knew she was pregnant before the vacation and her doctor said she was fine to fly. The couple also had travel insurance, but that didn't cover any of the medical costs that ran to more than $8,000 a day, she said.
Jan Christilaw, president of BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre, told the newspaper it has "a responsibility to B.C. taxpayers who fund our hospital healthcare system, and as such, has taken steps to recover the cost of care."
Meanwhile, Evans said Australian officials were trying to determine if the family could get some help from their national government, the Star said.
