A hospital in San Diego, California, has announced the birth of what is believed to be the smallest baby to not only survive but thrive. Saybie — the name given to her by the neonatal nurses who cared for her for five months before her release — was delivered to save her mother’s life and weighed in at 8.6 ounces.
The tiny infant’s size was compared to that of a large apple or a hamster and her survival described as miraculous.
“She’s a miracle, that’s for sure,” said Kim Norby, a nurse featured in the video the hospital posted on YouTube announcing Saybie’s journey.
The journey started when doctors delivered Saybie in December and told her father that he had about an hour to be with his daughter before she passed away.
“But that hour turned into two hours, which turned into a day, which turned into a week,” the unidentified mother said in a video released by Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns and republished by the Washington Post.
The Associated Press (AP) reported:
[The mother] said she was taken to the hospital after not feeling well and was told she had preeclampsia, a serious condition that causes skyrocketing blood pressure, and that the baby needed to be delivered quickly.
“I kept telling them she’s not going to survive, she’s only 23 weeks,” the mother said in the video.
But Saybie did survive and spent five months at the hospital where a sign by her crib said, “Tiny but Mighty.”
The nurses put a miniature graduation cap on her head when she was released.
Babies born before 28 weeks are designated as micro-preemie and can face developmental challenges as well as hearing and vision disabilities.
“So far Saybie has beaten the odds,” AP reported.
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