A California hospital on Wednesday disclosed the birth of the world’s smallest baby ever to survive, weighing a mere 245 grams — the same as a large apple — when she was born.
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, California.
The father was told by doctors that he would have about an hour 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 mother said in a video released by the hospital.
Doctors said Saybie was delivered via emergency caesarean section in December at 23 weeks and three days gestation in the womb after severe pregnancy complications that put her mother’s life at risk. A typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
After nearly five months at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, Saybie was discharged home earlier this month weighing a healthy 2.2 kg and sporting a graduation cap.
“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 by her crib that read “tiny but mighty” cheering her on.
Miracle baby
Emma Wiest, another nurse featured in the video, said Saybie was so small at birth that “you could barely see her on the bed.”
Doctors said that apart from Saybie’s fighting spirit, her survival as a micro preemie — a baby born before 28 weeks’ gestation — could be attributed to the fact that she suffered no serious complications after birth.
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.
