mobanmarketLos Angeles: A California hospital on Wednesday disclosed the birth of the world’s smallest baby ever to survive, weighing a mere 245 grams (8.6 ounces) – the same as a large apple – when she was born.
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The girl, nicknamed Saybie by hospital staff, was born 23 weeks and three days into her mother’s pregnancy at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns in San Diego.
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The father was told by doctors that he would have about an hour with his daughter before she passed away.
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“But that hour turned into two hours which turned into a day, which turned into a week,” the mother said in a video released by the hospital.
Doctors said Saybie was delivered via emergency cesarean section in December after severe pregnancy complications that put her mother’s life at risk.
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After nearly five months at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, she was discharged home earlier this month weighing a healthy five pounds and sporting a graduation cap.
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“She is a miracle, that’s for sure,” said Kim Norby, one of the nurses who cared for Saybie as she fought to survive with a sign that read “tiny but mighty” posted by her crib.
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Emma Wiest, another nurse, said Saybie was so tiny at birth that “you could barely see her on the bed.”
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At birth, she weighed as much as a child’s juice box and could fit in the palm of the hands of her caretakers.
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“I’d heard that we had such a tiny baby and it sounded unbelievable because I mean she’s about half of the weight as a normal 23-weaker,” Wiest said.
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Saybie’s ranking as the world’s tiniest baby ever to survive is according to the Tiniest Babies Registry, maintained by the University of Iowa.
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The previous record was held by a baby born in Germany in 2015 who weighed seven grams more than Saybie.
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“Every life is a miracle – those that defy the odds even more so,” Edward Bell, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa who oversees the Registry, told AFP.