A baby boy born in the US at just 24 weeks and one day has been allowed home after 181 days in hospital.
When mum Krysten went into early labour, doctors told her that her baby was “probably not going to make it”.
But Zaylan, who weighed only 1lb 6oz at birth and had a hole in his heart, is now home and “thriving”.
‘Tiny’
Fearing for the life of her unborn child, doctors had Krysten airlifted from her local hospital for specialist care in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Following Zaylan’s birth at UPMC Magee maternity hospital, he was taken straight to its neonatal intensive care unit.
Mum Krysten recalled: “When they took him down I was pretty scared. He was so tiny he fit in the palm of my hand.”
Home after a six month stay at Magee, his mum observed that Zaylan is “pretty funny now. He gives me the side eye. He smiles and laughs all the time”.
Survival
In Britain, abortion is currently effectively available for any reason up to 24 weeks, the age at which babies are deemed to be ‘viable’ outside the womb.
It wasn’t until 2019 that the British Association of Perinatal Medicine updated guidance to advise that it is possible for doctors to save the lives of children born at 22 weeks. Previously, it stated that they had no chance of survival.
Baby born with just half a heart ‘full of life’ at almost two years old