Babies born prematurely fight their tiny uphill battles, but they aren’t alone. Denver Fox affiliate KDVR recently reported a story of one of those babies, now a little girl, who had the opportunity to meet the NICU nurses who cared for her in the early days of that battle.
Zoey was born at 24 weeks and 5 days, “extremely unexpectedly,” according to her mom. She was tiny, weighing in at just 1 pound 9 ounces. And like many babies, she faced many issues in her early life, which can sometimes be due to complications of being so tiny – brain bleeds, blood transfusions, seizures, and cerebral palsy. Her mom remembers those 124 days as “extremely scary and traumatic,” but she also remembered the team of nurses that got Zoey – and her mother – through those difficult times. Many NICU nurses spend their time and energy caring for their very small and delicate patients. While they see them grow and make gains, and hopefully eventually “graduate” from the NICU, don’t always get to see how their patients grow and thrive after they leave. But Zoey’s team did.
“I remember how tiny she was and all the conversations that we had had about potential prognosis,” one member of her care team at St. Joseph Hospital reminisced, “and to see her walking through our front doors and jumping and excited is really heart-warming.” She added, “We’re a part of their journey forever. They remember us forever and the impact that we’ve had on them, and they’ve had just as much impact on us and we’re a home away from home for them.”
READ: Couple who met as premature babies in hospital celebrate birth of baby girl
Twenty-four weeks is widely considered the line of “viability” – a term that rose to public consciousness with the now-overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. As medicine continues to develop, the legal term, “viability”, which has no basis in sound science and does not reflect the humanity of preborn babies, has become a moving target. Many more babies are surviving being born at 21-22 weeks than ever before. The 1973 Supreme Court decision said that the age of fetal viability “is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.” In 2024, 28 weeks seems shockingly late, since babies like Zoey are surviving at earlier and earlier ages – even as young as 21 weeks.
But the attitudes of care teams for these babies – before and after birth – contributes a lot to helping the tiniest of babies survive and thrive. In fact, one recent study found better outcomes for babies born at 22 weeks when hospitals make an attempt to resuscitate every baby, rather than selectively resuscitating on physician or family preferences. Although the study was small, it found that when every baby is given proactive care, 53% survived as opposed to a 19% survival rate when reactively offering the same care to 22-week preemies.
For Zoey, the support of those who love her and the devotion of her care team carried her through those difficult early days in the NICU. Her mother wouldn’t have it any other way. “She is my entire world and I have never been so proud of somebody in my entire life. She has overcome so incredibly much in her short five years.”
