Mum‘s struggle to save premmie babies from toxic bushfire smoke

A mother of twins born 33-weeks premature during the Black Summer bushfires has shared her remarkable story of determination as she and her husband fought to shield their babies from the fire’s toxic air.

• What you get as a Sunday Telegraph subscriber
• Gruesome clue that led to killer of Spanish dancer

Bushfire smoke filled the hospital where Brooke Lye had given birth to premature twins, forcing her to flee to her home.

Then the smoke choked every room in her house in Googong,

Brooke, 33, feared her premmie babies, Ruby and her brother Ash, burdened with their delicate lungs, could not cope anymore.

They’d been living with the sulfurous haze for months before they were even born four minutes apart on November 20, as Brooke endured NSW’s Black Summer.

“When we came home, it was all through our house … it was filled with smoke,” she said “We put wet towels on the doors to keep it out but we couldn’t do much.

The view from Brooke’s home in Googong during the fires.

Brooke with her twins born amid the bushfires, Ruby and Ash.

“I locked myself in the smallest room in the house with the babies and an air purifier and we took terms being in there with them for five days straight.

“We couldn’t go outside, they were still getting fed by a tube and the nurses had to cancel their visits because they couldn’t drive through the smoke, it was that thick.”

MORE NEWS

‘Kill the pub plan’: Brawl over suburb with no beer

Competitive Candice reveals her secret SAS training tips

After a number of health scares and complications during her pregnancy, Brooke’s life had turned upside down when she went into preterm labour at 33 weeks. She was only allowed a brief glimpse of her newborns after their birth.

“They were taken away straight away, they both needed help with breathing … Ash was on the breathing machine for three days, in the isolate machine with no cuddles,” she said.

Ash in his isolation crib. The twins were taken away after being born as they both needed help with breathing.

Brooke and her partner Sam would go to the hospital every day for five weeks, only able to look at their babies.

On New Year’s Day nearby Canberra recorded the worst air quality on Earth.

“The smoke was so bad, you could literally see a haze in the hospital and I was panicking. I thought ‘they have premmie lungs, how are they going to get through this?’,” the young mum said.

Brooke was supposed to “room in” with her children for two days before leaving the hospital, but the smoke was so unbearable the mum couldn’t bear to have Ash and Ruby in the room.

She said those months of smoke-filled hell felt like “a different world”.

Black Summer bushfires smoke killed nearly 450 people and affected 80 per cent of the population, health experts have told the Bushfire Royal Commission.

Brooke said after the trauma of giving birth prematurely and being unable to hold her babies for so long, the fires pushed her to the edge.

“My lowest point was when I had a dream that I saw the babies, they were all red and I didn't know if that meant they were on fire,” she said.

Twin premmie babies born during the Black Summer bushfires, Ruby (left) and Ash.

She woke up in a panic and bundled the twins in her wardrobe to try and shield them from the smoke, staying locked away from even her partner until Brooke’s mother was able to calm her down.

Now Brooke is joining in the virtual Walk for Prems today to give back to the foundation, the hospitals and the nurses who got her through one of the hardest moments of her life.

The walk is raising money for the 48,000 babies born sick or premature every year.