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That came all free of charge, now 2 other babies are getting the same treatment after they've been identified as emergency cases that the US Doctors have volunteered to take on. Our news team was at there today when they were transferred from the KHMH Neonatal Unit to the PGIA. Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Meet baby Liam Ritchie, he's just over 2 weeks old, and he's one half of a pair of twin baby boys born to parents Cassia August and Shehein Ritchie.

Shehein Ritchie - Father of Baby Liam
"His name is Liam Luther Richie and he is 2 weeks and 3 days old."

Cassia August - Mother of Baby Liam
"It's my first baby, well, first pregnancy and its twins and I it's just sad that he had to take everything because my next baby is good. He's at home and it's just sad that he had to take all the difficulties."

And this smiling baby girl is Kelsie Sutherland. She's 10 months old.

Robert Sutherland - Father of Baby Kelsie
"Kelsie Sutherland, she is 10 months tomorrow she is going to be 11 months."

They both appear to be healthy babies ready to go home with their families, but they each have been born with a life threatening defect.

Baby Liam was born with an incomplete esophagus meaning that he is missing the tube which connects her mouth to his stomach.

As Dr. Cecilio Eck explained in December last year, babies born with this defect die a slow painful death without the life-saving surgery.

File: December 28, 2015
Dr. Cecilio Eck - Head of Pediatrics, KHMH
"Starvation and death. Usually would happen is there is no connection between the mouth and the stomach. The saliva that you and I produce would actually get in the lung and caused recurrent pneumonias and that usually would kill the children. With the surgery - a normal healthy life."

That's the condition that Baby Liam is facing.

Candice Tillett - Project Mngr. WPP Belize
"The first case is the esophageal atresia with baby Liam. We were notified of the condition as soon as the baby was born and transported from Dangriga to the KHMH and so we started to work right away. We contacted our office in Richmond and we came to the hospital and got all the information to submit the case as an urgent case."

Shehein Ritchie - Father of Baby Liam
"It's a malformation that 1 in 4 thousand kids is born with and it's very difficult to be fixed in Belize so, for this case we have to transport him to U. S. to get the surgery done."

Daniel Ortiz
"Being 1 out of 4 thousand the dice rolled and landed in this particular instance in your case, that must be disappointing"

Cassia August - Mother of Baby Liam
"It's very disappointing, the esophagus is not fully form so, and he can't feed. He can't so anything."

Tylon Tillett - PR, KHMH
"The Ritchie baby has been with us at the KHMH from the child was born a week and a half ago in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It is a unit with the highest level of care in the country for babies of this nature, who are suffering from some kind of defect and so we have trained neonatologists, Dr. Constansa and we have a dedicated team of professionals inside our NICU to make sure that these babies survive. Like I said this baby is 3 pounds. It's one of our miracle babies."

While baby Kelsie is facing a condition where there are polyps growing in her throat, slowly constricting her airway. If it is not addressed, it could lead to breathing problems.

Camille Ferguson - Office Assistant, WPP Belize
"The 2nd case that we have is that she has Laryngeal polyp. She is 10 months old going on to 11 and she has them growing in her airway obstructing her breathing. To make sure that she continues living, that she has a better quality of life she is going to get the surgery done in the States."

Robert Sutherland - Father of Baby Kelsie
"We didn't know that she had it. So, we visited several different hospital but all they gave us was medicine until I brought her to Belize Healthcare Partners where Dr. Cobb did a surgery and we found out that she had a mass in her throat. That was when things became serious. So, Dr. Cobb refer us to World Pediatric Organization where we brought her and then we got help. Now she is on her way to Virginia."

Camille Ferguson - Office Assistant, WPP Belize
"Coincidentally we had these 2 leaving together today so they can support each other throughout the entire treatment"

Through the partnership between World Pediatric Project, and their international partners both these babies will get world class medical treatment to fix the conditions threatening their lives.

Tylon Tillett - PR, KHMH
"It's the teamwork of going together with the organizations such as World Pediatric, Gift of Life and several other international agencies that are here that make these thing possible. So, they expand on the capacities that we are unable to offer. once upon a time if the baby was born here it would have been a death sentence but the World Pediatric being one of our most dedicated partners it ensures that these babies get a chance at life. So, it's another million dollar baby and KHMH is more than happy to have been the bridge towards getting that baby the world class first world care that it needs."

Candice Tillett - Project Mngr. WPP Belize
"Being that this baby is so small, the baby only has around 3 pounds so the baby could not travel on a commercial flight so we reach out to our partners from Richmond, Virginia, reached out to the company that had the jet and ask once again if they could kindly donate their services and hence the reason why the private plane is coming for the baby."

Camille Ferguson - Office Assistant, WPP Belize
"It's extremely rare that we get private jets flown in for our patients unless it is an extreme emergency like this one which was arranged within a week."

For these two families, the health of their babies has been a constant worry.

Daniel Ortiz
"Will one of you guys be attending or be there with your baby in the states?"

Cassia August - Mother of Baby Liam
"I am. We are leaving soon, just me and him and it would be hard because I would need to leave my next son."

Shehein Ritchie - Father of Baby Liam
"I'm extremely grateful to have this problem fixed so that I can later have my son with me."

Cassia August - Mother of Baby Liam
"We want both of them home soon. We just have to take the time the doctors will take to do the surgery and I hope he recovers well and come back home and be a family."

Daniel Ortiz
"How are you all able to be so composed in all of this? I have seen other families who are unable to speak because of how difficult it is"

Cassia August - Mother of Baby Liam
"My husband is strong. I'm not so strong. He is strong for me and himself. He has to comfort me most of the time because I cry a lot."

Shehein Ritchie - Father of Baby Liam
"Not only that, we also have a lot of friends and family that support us too. We really appreciate it from everybody."

Robert Sutherland - Father of Baby
"It's a big relief because as I said I checked over, all over Belize. I even went to Guatemala and no one could have told us what our baby had, so it's a big relief for me. Her mother, my wife, went with her."

Daniel Ortiz
"So how do you plan to pass the wait while the weeks go by so that they can do the surgery and then her recovery?"

Robert Sutherland - Father of Baby
"Well, I told her to call me each and every day so that I know that everything is ok with my baby and herself over on that side. I'll be just fine."

The mothers of both babies will accompany them to the VCU Hospital in Virginia, where they hope that their medical conditions will be fixed. We'll keep following up with these babies, and we'll tell you how their prognosis looks.