The most premature baby in the world, who had no chance of survival according to doctors, has just celebrated his first birthday at home, surrounded by his parents.
- In France, prematurity is the first cause of neonatal mortality and is responsible for half of the handicaps of perinatal origin.
- It affects approximately 55,000 births each year.
- Among these thousands of children, 8 to 10,000 are born at the end of 22 to 31 weeks of pregnancy and are described as extreme or extremely premature.
While all the doctors had estimated that he would not survive, Richard Scott William Hutchinson has just celebrated his first birthday. Born 131 days early, the little boy has just been designated by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most premature baby alive today.
“0% chance of survival”
Richard was born at Children’s Hospital Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA, after his mother, Beth Hutchinson, suffered from medical complications that induced early labor. Born five months before the term, this very premature baby weighed only 340 grams at birth: “he was so small that his parents could hold him in the palm of one hand”, reports the Guinness Book of World Records. “When we saw his parents Rick and Beth, our neonatology team told them that their child had a 0% chance of survival,” recalls Dr. Stacy Kern, neonatologist.
The baby’s future looked all the more complicated as with the coronavirus crisis, his parents could not watch him at night, and his relatives could not visit him. But, against all odds and after 6 months of hospitalization, little Richard was able to return home.
“We are happy”
“The day Richard walked out of the NICU was such a special day. I remember pulling him out of his crib and holding him in my arms with tears in my eyes,” says his mother. “I couldn’t believe it was the same little boy so sick when he was born. The same little boy that fit in the palm of my hand, with skin so translucent I could see every vessel in his little body. . I couldn’t help but hug him and tell him how proud I was of him.” continues the mother. “We are still surprised, but we are happy. We want to share our story to raise awareness about premature births”, conclude the happy parents.
At the age of 5 and a half, 35% of children born extremely premature, nearly 45% of very premature babies and 55% of those born moderately premature will have a developmental trajectory close to normal, according to a recent Inserm study. . Children born prematurely can nevertheless encounter difficulties, ranging from severe but rare handicaps to more subtle disorders, however, requiring the mobilization of significant medical, paramedical and family resources.
.
