Jesse Ramien and partner Shell Gibbs return home safe with newborn son Teo after traumatic premature birth

Cronulla Sharks veteran Jesse Ramien and his partner Shell Gibbs are feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude after their newborn baby Teo made it home safe from a Bali hospital.

The couple were on the Indonesian holiday island for the wedding of Ramien’s NRL teammate Briton Nikora earlier this month when Gibbs went into labour and their son was born six weeks premature.

Teo required five minutes of resuscitation to stay alive and his parents weren’t able to meet him until the next morning while he recovered in a neonatal intensive care unit.

It was then weeks before they were even able to pick him up and hold him as Teo remained in an incubator.

Traumatised by the ordeal, Ramien reached out to the Australian embassy in Indonesia, seeking help to organise a flight on compassionate grounds for their medically induced baby to get back to Australia.

The estimated cost was around $130,000.

To help ease that pressure, a GoFundMe page was set up by Shavaun Hunt, the wife of Ramien’s Sharks teammate Royce Hunt.

With the help of a number of NRL players from across the league, as well as the wider rugby league community, almost $60,000 was raised to facilitate the safe journey home for Teo.

“I’ll play for nothing just to get our baby boy home safely,” Ramien said at the time.

Doctors remained with the newborn right throughout the flight.

Having announced their safe return home, Ramien says his family is indebted to the support of everyone who contributed to help them in the emergency.

“We’re back home in Australia now and we just want to say thankyou to all our friends, family and everyone who reached out, sent a message, liked, shared, donated and done anything to help out in anyway,” Ramien wrote on Instagram.

“We couldn’t have done it without everyone and we couldn’t have got home without everyone’s support.

“A massive thankyou to all my teammates that were in Bali, who helped us out in that tough time.

“We’re forever grateful and we definitely felt the love for sure.”

Upon returning home, Gibbs wrote: “Teo Cove. Little warrior boy, you can conquer anything, my son.”

Knowing she was 33 weeks pregnant, Gibbs and Ramien did everything they could to mitigate the risk of travelling. They ticked it off with their obstetrician, got clearance from the airline and ensured travel insurance cover for pregnancy.

Teo’s medical costs were not included in the cover, however.

At the time, the couple were told it could have been between four and seven weeks before the baby would be allowed to travel.

“There’s just so much uncertainty here,” Ramien told News Corp at the time.

“The unfamiliarity of the medical system here and that ability to communicate our concerns in Bali only adds to the stress and emotion around this.‘’