Posted on 08/19/2004 7:02:08 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Madeleine was the tiniest baby ever to survive, she weighed in at only 9 ounces when she was born, she was not even ten inches long. Now she is a 14 year old (nearly 15) achiever. After a couple of small eye problems and a bit of asthma she has developed well.
Madeleine is 4ft 6 ins tall. This is slightly under the normal height for a girl of her age. According to her doctors she is physically and mentally normal.
You can read about this in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Jonathan Muraskas, who delivered her, said "People have got to be very careful how they interpret this. People may say 'I had a 2 pound baby that didn't make it'," he added in a telephone interview -- saying parents could be disappointed or even sue…..I think the take-home points are that boys are wimps when premature. Girls do so much better than boys. And Madeline was 27 weeks. I think gestational age is critical."
Madeleine was born 13 weeks early (born at 27 weeks). Her mother had pre-eclampsia, hence her low birth weight.
Dr. Muraskas says she still has the world record for lowest birth weight (surviving baby). "We knew that the baby was going to be small but we also knew she was almost 27 weeks. Madeline came out crying and she peed on me, too. But I didn't expect a baby that small."
She spent the first month of her life on a ventilator and left the hospital when she was four months old. Even though her eyes were slightly damaged, she now has perfect eyesight thanks to treatment she received.
Taking about saving premature babies, Dr. Muraskas said "We are not miracle workers. The survival rate has about peaked. A baby today born at 23 weeks, that's about the lowest limit of viability, that translates to about a one-pound baby. The survival rate is about 5 percent to 10 percent. The chances of a developmental handicap like blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, is at least 90 percent. We put band aids on these babies' little problems but we have to step back and ask what is the quality of life for little babies?"
Jonathan Muraskas, who helped deliver Madeline and is based at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, says he thought at the time that she had a 60% chance of survival.
She is small for her age, at only 136 centimetres compared with the average 163 centimetres, but she is in the top 20% for high school entrance exams scores. "I think her development is a miracle," Muraskas says.
A late friend of mine was 4'6 also. Every life is a miracle.
Let's hope she gets to live to be 120.
My daughter has a history of problem pregnancies. Last time she was pregnant - five years ago - her doctor told her at 28 weeks that the baby had a very good chance of survival - 80%. At 32 weeks, the doctor said to her, "you're home free". At 33 weeks, she had to deliver. Three weeks later, the baby came home. He's five now and perfectly healthy, although chronically asthmatic.
Life ping!
Semper Fi
At 14, the young lady could still have a growth spurt. Anyway, short people live longer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It is sad to think that perfectly healthy babies of that same gestational age and even older are aborted every day.
Notice the Canadian physician is not as positive as the American. ;)
An excellent story, but not suprising. Medical advances have been pushing the viability limits to earlier and earlier.
My son was born at 27wks. He weighed 2.5lbs. He too, was in the hospital on a respirator for over 3mos. While he was there he had a triple hernia operation and a pneumothorax from the ventialtor. This was back in 1993. At that time we were told he had a 50% chance of survival and an 80% chance of developmental problelms.
I am glad to say he is an excellent athlete playing hockey, lacrosse, and surfing. He is also in the top of his class making honor rolls constantly.
Prayers and Gods answers tilted the odds in our favor.
[Dr. Muraskas said "We are not miracle workers. The survival rate has about peaked. A baby today born at 23 weeks, that's about the lowest limit of viability, that translates to about a one-pound baby. The survival rate is about 5 percent to 10 percent. The chances of a developmental handicap like blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, is at least 90 percent. We put band aids on these babies' little problems but we have to step back and ask what is the quality of life for little babies?"]
This is a ridiculous statement. Quality of life is dependant upon how the person views his or her own life. Not being alive has 0 quality. We should only strive to increase those odds of having a quality life for the person and not concern ourselves with whether or not they should live. Life's worth is not up to doctors or any of us to decide for these babies.
NO Matter what the odds, have faith. All life is sacred whether or not we have defects (we all do).
It's unlikely, she's female with female growth pattern. I was 4'6" when I was 16, and grew 8" or so in just over a year, but I'm male.
My daughter inherited my height (I'm just shy of 5'2") and as year nears 11, the potential for her to have a subtantial growth spurt are negligable. I found the following on a quick google, and it essentially says everything that nurse wife and our peditrician have already said, and that I just related to you.
Puberty is a time of enormous physical and mental change. For many children, this is a frightening experience. Not only do their hormones change their body functions, but there is also a growth spurt beginning, on average, at 9 years of age. It continues for roughly 4 years, and for many girls it reaches its peak at around the age of 11. Final height and all other body characteristics depend upon the unique blend of genetic material passed on from parents.
As is usually the way with biology, there is no such thing as 'normality'. Some girls start their rapid increase in growth sooner, some later. This has no bearing on final height. An early start only means slowing down before the others, and things will even themselves out. As this all takes place earlier on average than it does in boys, it is not unusual to find a classroom full of tall girls and relatively small boys.
All correct. Although it is unusual, there are still a number of girls who don't reach their full height until 16 or 17. It's called "delayed constitutional growth." My oldest daughter is growth-hormone deficient, so we've been exposed to lots of information on girls' growth!
In reporting this same story this morning, my local newspaper said that the survival rate for babies born at 27 weeks was now 90% and instances of babies surviving after 21 weeks have been recorded. This points out the stupidity of the Supreme Court decision of a few decades ago when the Court set a time certain before which a pregnancy could be legally terminated - apparently on the grounds that such young babies could not survive outside the womb. Medical science has moved on and now, under the Courts ruling, viable babies can be legally aborted.
This is what happens when Courts try to play God with the helpless rather than extend them every protection as the law was intended.
Ah, then you do understand. My daughter isn't deficient, just familially small. She just inherited my height gene. I'm 5'1", and my mother was 4'9" She'll be in that range herself. What makes it tough on her, is that her mother (my wife) is 6', and her older sister is 6'2" So she's going to be this tiny thing with an amazonian mother and sister.
I'm not an expert, but I believe survival rates have greatly increased due to the introduction of surfactant, a protein that is now routinely given to premies to help their developing lungs.
Our daughter was checked for genetic shortness (I forget what the scientific term was), and had bone x-rays a couple of times, which projected her height as 5'3" to 5'5". When her growth hormone level measured -0-, it was clear what the problem was! She's been taking hormone shots for over a year, and should reach her full height within the next year and a half. I was my full, unimpressive height at 12.
It must be stressful for your daughter, being so much shorter than her mother and sister! My cousin's daughter, on the tall side of the family, is 6 feet tall at 16. For a few years, my cousin sent clothes for MY daughter, and then I sent MY clothes for her daughter, but now our entire family is too short!
I think surfactant was just being introduced at the time ('93) although I cant be sure. We had a wonderful neo natal intensive care unit. He was born at Lennox Hill hospital in NYC. They mentioned giving him surfactant to help speed the development of his lungs. It is the lungs surface that is one of the last parts of development prior to birth, so surfactant is a miracle drug for babies like my son.
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