Infant twin boys born prematurely at 26 weeks gestation have been reunited with police and the healthcare workers who helped save their lives in north-west New South Wales.
In September last year, Bingara mum Emma Wilkins went into labour at 26 weeks gestation, with the closest hospital almost 70 kilometres away at Inverell.
Her twin boys were due on Christmas Day.
After calling the hospital, Mrs Wilkins and her dad Ian started the panicked trip to Inverell.
"[After] previously losing twins, I wasn't prepared to risk anything," Mrs Wilkins said.
Stopped by police
Halfway through their journey, the duo was stopped for speeding by Senior Constable Darrell Monckton, who was patrolling the Gwydir Highway when he came across the car "leap frogging" and weaving in between traffic.
"It appeared to be travelling a lot quicker than it should be," Senior Constable Monckton said.
"I decided to turn around and pull it over and see what the story was.
"The driver of the vehicle pulled over, got out of the vehicle and came running up to me and told me what was going on.
"By the time I could say anything he turned around and ran off back into the vehicle and started heading off again, so I put the lights and sirens on and went around and escorted them in."
But before they arrived, Mrs Wilkins gave birth in the passenger seat of the car.
"I had a big contraction and my water broke and another straight away and Declan arrived very quickly," Mrs Wilkins said.
"I caught him and was massaging his chest and stimulating him, clearing his mouth and trying to get him breathing and crying.
"But as I was doing that, I was having another contraction, my water broke and then Dominic came."
Hospital rallies to save twins
On arrival at the hospital both Declan and Dominic had faint heart beats and only one of them was breathing.
"It was very daunting, I didn't expect they would survive, " Mrs Wilkins's pre-natal midwife Lisa Manuel said.
"It's not something that we see every day and it's not something we do everyday," health service manager Kath Randall said.
"But our training kicked in and we work exceptionally well as a team."
Hospital staff managed to resuscitate, intubate and stabilise the tiny twins, who weighed just 960 grams and 1.25 kilograms.
They were taken by the Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport Service (NETS) to Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital, where they spent the next 94 days.
The reunion they'd all been waiting for
On Thursday, Mrs Wilkins, Declan and Dominic were reunited with health care workers at Inverell Hospital.
"They were tiny, very fragile and very determined at that point [after they were delivered] too," Ms Randall said.
"They were hanging on to our fingers, they were very strong little boys.
"To see them today is such a nice contrast, and now it's just lovely to see how healthy and happy they are and to see Emma looking so fantastic as well."
A tearful Mrs Wilkins thanked the medical team, who she said saved her sons' lives.
"The whole team here were amazing, without everyone our boys wouldn't be here," she said.
"We're very lucky and we can't thank them enough."
