THE WORLD’S smallest surviving baby born at a San Diego hospital was officially discharged on Wednesday (May 29) after being born at just 8.6 ounces.
The baby named Saybie was born at 23 weeks and three days and was sent home weighing 5 pounds after almost five months in a neonatal intensive care unit, Associated Press reports.
The Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns shared baby Saybie’s journey after gaining permission from the family. A four-minute video detailed the baby’s neonatal care alongside her mother who choose to remain anonymous.
“The scariest day of my life. I just felt very uncomfortable and I thought maybe this was part of the pregnancy,” said Saybie’s mother. She was taken to the Sharp Mary Birch Hospital after experiencing complications during pregnancy, where she found out she had preeclampsia.
“My blood pressure was very very high - over 200,” she said.
Due to the complications, they went ahead with delivering the baby.
The mother said she told medical professionals that she didn’t think she would survive at 23 weeks. The doctors also told her husband that he had an hour before the child would pass away.
“That hour turned into two hours which turned into a day which turned into a week,” said the mother.
Saybie’s ranking as the world’s smallest baby ever to survive is according to the Tiniest Baby Registry maintained by the University of Iowa, the hospital said.
Dr. Edward Bell, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa, said Saybie had the lowest birth weight of those submitted to the registry.
“The Registry contains only those infants submitted and medically confirmed,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “We cannot rule out even smaller infants who have not been reported to the Registry.”
Watch the video below:
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