Coronavirus Australia: Baby, mum reunited after separation across border

A NSW mum has finally been reunited with her newborn baby son days after she and her husband were banned from visiting him in Queensland.

A NSW mum has been finally reunited with her newborn baby after the two were kept apart on opposite sides of the Queensland border due COVID-19 restrictions.

Chantelle Northfield said she wasn’t allowed to see her newborn son Harvey who was rushed across the border to Brisbane for lifesaving medical treatment after he was born with breathing difficulties on Friday.

Despite Ms Northfield and her husband Glen getting permission from NSW and Queensland authorities to travel north to visit Harvey, Brisbane’s Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital told the heartbroken couple their visit was “too high-risk” due to COVID-19 and they would have to quarantine for 14 days.

But today, Ms Northfield was finally reunited with baby Harvey after he was brought back to hospital in Lismore.

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Chantelle Northfield has been finally reunited with baby Harvey.

“At 1.20pm today Harvey was brought back to the nursery at Lismore Hospital and came straight into my arms after a long 4 days,” Ms Northfield said on Facebook.

“We will forever be grateful to Lismore Base Hospital and how they did everything they could and tried their hardest to help get both Glen and I across the border to be by Harvey’s side. “We also hope that Qld allows more exemptions under medical circumstances to prevent all this from happening to any more people.”

Ms Northfield said Harvey was “doing well” but will remain in hospital for the next day or two.

It had been an agonising wait for Ms Northfield, from Casino in northern NSW, who only got to hold Harvey for a fleeting moment after he as born at Lismore Base Hospital early on August 14.

Baby Harvey is 'doing well' and back in NSW.

Due to breathing difficulties, the newborn was sent to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital that night for “extensive” medical treatment.

“I obviously wanted to go with him, but unfortunately with the coronavirus pandemic, we were not able,” Ms Northfield said, 7 News reported.

She and Mr Northfield were told there was no room in the helicopter but that they could come by car.

After receiving the necessary permissions from NSW Health and Queensland Police, the hospital told them they were “too high-risk” and would have to quarantine for 14 days.

“Harvey was sent to a Brisbane Hospital via helicopter Friday night as he was having trouble breathing and needed further treatment then the amazing workers at Lismore could do,” Ms Northfield said in an earlier post on Facebook.

The bub was rushed to Brisbane for lifesaving medical treatment after he suffered breathing difficulties after birth.

“Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of the Qld border, Glen and I were refused entry to the hospital until after 14 days mandatory quarantine in a hotel.

“We would have been more than willing to do that if there was a guarantee that Harvey would be there for that long but no one is 100 per cent sure and the second he no longer needs such extensive treatment he will be flown back to Lismore.

“Any parent can understand the stress and the heartache of being home without your baby whilst they’re in a hospital and you’re not allowed to visit.”

Ms Northfield said she was relying on video calls to see Harvey, the little brother of the couple’s one-year-old son Lloyd.

“FaceTime’s just not the same because I can’t even lay a finger on him,” she told 7 News through tears on Monday.

“All I want are both my boys with me, happy and healthy. But one is going to be in Brisbane where we can’t see him.

“I just want him to know how much I love him.”

Yesterday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he planned to reach out to his Queensland counterpart Steven Miles to discuss if there was “any way at all we can make this situation any less distressing”.

With Sarah McPhee and Gavin Fernando