WORLD’S TINIEST BUB COULDN’T WAIT TO BE HERE
WASHINGTON: On America’s Independence Day last year, Michelle Butler – a woman in Birmingham, Alabama who was just 21 weeks pregnant with twins – suddenly went into labour without warning, a staggering four months before her due date.
Rushed to hospital as fireworks lit up the night sky around her, she gave birth to her twins in the early hours of July 5.
Tragically, only one child, her son Curtis, survived.
Weighing in at just 420g – about the same as an empty water glass – Curtis clung to life but his sister C’Asya died the following day.
This week, Curtis was confirmed as the world’s most premature baby to survive. Despite being born 132 days early and spending the next nine months in hospital, much of that time on a ventilator, he is now healthy at 16 months old, although he still needs supplemental oxygen and a feeding tube.
Doctors at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who delivered the twins remain stunned by Curtis’s survival. “I’ve been doing this almost 20 years but I’ve never seen a baby this young as strong,” Brian Sims, a neonatologist, told Guinness World Records.
Curtis’s head at birth was about the size of an orange. But miraculously, after 275 days of round-the-clock care, he was strong enough to be discharged, and went home to his relieved family.
“Being able to finally take Curtis home and surprise my older children is a moment I will always remember,” his mother Michelle said.
The previous baby to hold the world record was Richard Hutchinson, who was born in Wisconsin just a month before Curtis in June last year. At 21 weeks and one day of gestation, he was one day older than Curtis.
Prior to this, the record had gone unbroken for 34 years. A foetus is considered full term after 40 weeks.
“I am grateful for the UAB team,” a beaming Michelle said. “They made sure that I knew what was happening every step of the way. They truly cared.”