A premature baby boy born at only 24 weeks’ gestation spent a whopping 334 days in intensive care, breaking a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit record for the longest time as a patient before being able to go home.
Baby Adonis was born extremely prematurely, weighing less than 2lb.Almost a year later, Adonis has finally been able to leave the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after spending 334 days there.
Adonis’ mother, Jasmin, called the moment “bittersweet”, saying she had been “holding a lot in all of these months, and to finally see him here… it’s been a lot”.
She added that it has been a very difficult journey, not only physically but emotionally, and that her baby boy has been fighting every step of the way.
Katherine Martinson, a nurse who cared for baby Adonis at the NICU, agreed that the boy is a fighter.
“I remember going home and coming back, and I’m like, ‘I hope and pray that he’s still here’”, she recalled. “He was a fighter since the very beginning”, Katherine added.
“It’s a miracle that he’s going home”, she said. “A lot of babies at that gestation that are born that early go to a different hospital to get a trach, or g-tube or other specialised care that we don’t have here”, the nurse added, calling it a “huge deal”.
“Give babies a chance when they’re born that early; a lot of people don’t realise they can exceed expectations, even when they’re born that early”, Katherine explained.
“A long journey” to get to this stage, mother reveals
Things were not easy for baby Adonis, who fought both Staphylococcus aureus and pneumonia during his time in the NICU.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs. It’s been a long journey. Definitely a lot of anxiety in the beginning when he had more critical care”, his mother, Jasmin, said.
“It’s hard to describe a long NICU journey like this. I really don’t know how I even survived”, she recalled.
Despite the trials and tribulations, she is very glad to finally be going home with her son.
“He’s definitely meant to be here”, Jasmin stated.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “We are so pleased that baby Adonis is finally going home from the neonatal intensive care unit, almost a year after his birth. I am sure both he and his family are very relieved.
“His strength to make it through such prolonged difficulties is a testament to the strength of so many premature children”.
