A “miracle” baby girl born at just 22 weeks gestation has been discharged from hospital after spending over five months in neonatal intensive care.
Baby Grecia was born on 30 January at UMC Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas at only 22 weeks gestation and was the “most premature baby to graduate from the hospital’s NICU”. She weighed just over one pound at birth and faced serious developmental issues.
Baby Grecia was immediately admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she would be cared for for the next 166 days. With the support of her doctors, nurses and her family, she was finally able to graduate from NICU and go home to her family on 15 July, weighing a healthy 9 pounds and 10 ounces. She was called a miracle by UMC’s neonatologists as she’s now able to breathe and eat on her own and has been discharged with no serious developmental issues.
Dr Francis Banfro, Medical Director of the NICU at UMC, expressed his satisfaction with Grecia’s development, “She feeds like a champ!”.
“We are excited to have a baby who is 22 weeks and coming out without any major neurological consequence”.
Stories like Grecia’s have become increasingly possible due to advances in neonatal care. Research indicates that a significant number of babies born at 22 or 23 weeks gestation can now survive outside the womb.
In 2019, new guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine recommended that doctors in the UK offer active treatment to babies born at 22 weeks, reflecting growing medical confidence in supporting these tiny patients.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Grecia’s survival is a remarkable testimony to the advances in neonatal medicine and to the determination of families and doctors who believe in protecting every life. She is living proof that babies born as early as 22 weeks can not only survive, but go on to thrive”.
