One Of World’s Smallest Preemies Heads Home
By Anonymous
Parents of one of the world’s smallest premature babies recently got to take her home for the first time since she was delivered last fall.
Amillia Sonja Taylor has known only an incubator for a bed at Miami’s Baptist Children’s Hospital since she was delivered in October after less than 22 weeks in the womb.
Upon leaving the hospital spokeswoman Liz Latta said, “The baby is healthy and thriving.”
Amillia, who was just 9 inches at birth and weighed less than 10 ounces, will still require oxygen at home and a developmental specialist will follow-up with her and her parents to track her neurological development.
At JET press time the infant weighed about 4 pounds and was just over 15 inches long.
Amillia’s parents, Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead, FL, could not be reached for comment at JET press time.
Full-term births are 37 to 40 weeks, and few babies born before 22 weeks survive.
The baby suffered respiratory and digestive problems, as well as a mild brain hemorrhage, but doctors believe those problems will not have major long-term effects.
Amillia was conceived in vitro and was delivered by Caesarean section after an infection caused her mother to go into premature labor, doctors said. The fact that she is still alive is believed to be a miracle.
Sonja Taylor holds baby Amillia as they are greeted by (l-r) Dr. William Smalling, Sonja’s stepsister Jacquiria Cade and Sonja’s husband Eddie Taylor at Baptist Children’s Hospital in Miami before they took the baby home.
Amillia is shown lying next to a ballpoint pen to show her tiny size just a few days after her birth. The infant weighed less than 10 ounces and measured only 9 inches in length back in October.
After Amillia’s birth a healthcare worker displays her diminutive feet. She was delivered just under 22 weeks of pregnancy. Full term babies arrive after 37 to 40 weeks.
Copyright Johnson Publishing Company Mar 12, 2007
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