A baby boy was born a week before the UK abortion limit at only 1lb 1oz and, after 6 months in intensive care, has gone home a healthy and happy boy.
Baby Alanie was born in Florida at just 23 weeks gestation. His mum, Graysel Stuart, had gone for an ultrasound to find out the sex of her baby. Doctors noticed that her cervix was opening too early and she underwent treatment to try to close it. However, her treatment was only partially successful and her cervix began opening again. This meant she would likely go into labour very soon.
“[The doctors] decided, OK, I may be at risk for early labor. So, they contacted Broward Health Medical Center and they said they are open to taking me”, Graysel said.
She was transferred to Broward Health and baby Alanie was born within four days weighing only 1lb 1oz on 30 November.
Born at 23 weeks weighing only 1lb 1oz
Dr Johny Tryzmel, the neonatologist leading the care for baby Alanie, said “You’re talking about a baby that the chances for survival were in the 30%, to say in the best case scenario, around that 30%, 40% — and [he] beat the odds”.
Being born so prematurely, baby Alanie needed all sorts of medical interventions. He was on a ventilator and needed steroids for his lungs to develop properly. He had stage two retinopathy of prematurity, a condition affecting his eyes, and also had a brain bleed, as well as urinary and respiratory infections.
His mum, Graysel, never left his side while his father, Alvon Lettsome, would visit for a week at a time every month.
The stress of being in the hospital and not knowing if Baby Alanie would make it or not took its toll on Graysel. She said:
“You need to find a way to just let everything go. For me, it was walks, scrapbooking, or just going to the bathroom and just letting everything out or writing the feelings or emotions in a book and just throwing it away. You know, just do what you gotta do to let those feelings out, because it’s not good for you and it’s not good for the baby.”
Despite the ups and downs, though, Alanie is now six months old and while he needs regular injections to boost his white blood cell count, it hasn’t stopped Alanie being the happy boy he is today.
“He loves to smile. He loves to laugh”, his mum said, adding that he’s “very nosy” and “loves the camera”.
Dr Tryzmel joked “I don’t see why not, one day he actually can be a neonatologist”.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “More and more babies are born before the abortion limit and go on to survive. They shine a spotlight on just how barbaric our abortion laws are.”
