The size of a mobile phone: Kimberley Mueller weighed just over 10 ounces when she was born in Hanover, Germany - making her the world’s smallest surviving baby
Posted on 09/28/2007 3:29:14 PM PDT by cpforlife.org
The world’s tiniest baby - meet the 10oz bundle of defiance
When she was born, 15 weeks premature and weighing ten and a half ounces, her father’s confidence was about the only thing on Kimberly Mueller’s side.
In the few snatched moments he was allowed before his daughter was whisked away by doctors, Andreas Mueller spoke from his heart.
“I whispered to her: ‘Kimberly, you’ll make it,’” he recalled.
The size of a mobile phone: Kimberley Mueller weighed just over 10 ounces when she was born in Hanover, Germany - making her the world’s smallest surviving baby
With a survival chance of less than 1,000 to one, every day she has got through since then is a triumph.
Six months later, Kimberly has finally been allowed to go home to her parents in Hanover.
“Babies as small as this usually have no chance,” said Dr Oliver Moeller, a heart specialist who treated her.
“We are incredibly lucky that she lived. Such a case I have never experienced. We had a lot of luck ... a lot.”
Kimberly is the smallest baby ever born in Germany and the youngest to survive.
She was just 10.2 inches long and weighed little more than a packet of butter when she arrived in the 25th week of her mother’s pregnancy.
Now six months, Kimberley has been allowed home for the first time (Above with mother Petra and father Andreas)
Petra Mueller, 38, who remained at her daughter’s bedside in intensive care at the University Clinic in Goettingen, was allowed only to stroke her with her finger.
“It was the nicest thing when she would grip my finger in her tiny hands,” she recalled.
“She was like a little bear gripping a tree trunk, just hanging on for life as if she was saying ‘Don’t leave me, mummy’.”
Kimberly was placed in an incubator for warmth, given a respirator to help her breathe and fed through a drip. She was also given a cocktail of drugs to boost an immune system that was barely formed.
At three months, she faced a major setback, when doctors feared she could be blind. But laser treatment corrected the problem.
Kimberley’s chances of living were rated at worse than 1,000-1 when she was born 15 weeks prematurely
Kimberly’s progress was underlined when she arrived home this week weighing five and a half pounds and measuring 17 inches.
During the coming weeks she will continue to be fed artificially and will need to have oxygen as her lungs keep developing.
The world’s smallest known surviving baby was Rumaisa Rahman who weighed just 8.6 ounces when she was born in Chicago in 2004.
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Ah, but she wasn't viable anyway so it was . . . what's that? She survived? Oh.
Nevermind.
Wow.
Jeez, go change a diaper or something :-).
My first born was a 3 lb premmie and we held on tight.
He is now a major force at 15 years old LOL
This is just amazing..and that first photo is truly incredible.
And she even has married parents ... wonderful!
Those pictures are terrifying. My smallest baby was over 6-1/2 lbs. when we brought him home, and I didn’t put him down for a couple of months, because he seemed so tiny!
“that first photo is truly incredible”
That’s what I was thinking, truly amazing.
PING
How long does it take a premmie to catch up to their age?
For example, do they generally start first grade a little later or are they physically caught up by then?
My son, at 9lbs 8 ozs, would have been a monster next to this little one!
All I can say is...God bless her and her parents - and
GOOD JOB DOCTORS AND NURSES!!!
Her parents look so happy. What a miracle.
Wooohooooo! Yay, Kimberly! Yay, Life!
It’s the little miracles that make your eyes well up....
LOL—Petronski is always so—so eloquent, yea that’s it, eloquent :-).
I will reply to you tomorrow with the whole thing about my son. Its hub and I’s 16th anninversary today and I have to go so check back tomorrow.
Mine was 3 1/2 lbs 26 yrs ago. 6-3 and 250 now
The first year was scary, but after he learned to eat.....look out!
At 10 lbs 13 oz birth weight, Baby Chan had an ass cheek that weighed more at birth than this little girl’s whole body did.
Way to go, scrapper!
Tiny premies usually are physically caught up by the age of three. Her due date will always be her real ‘birth’ date, and the probablility of learning difficulties will be very high.
She has already proved that she is a survivor, so she will compensate for any neurological deficits, with other skills and talents.
Every year thousands of babies are murdered in the womb at that age. And even older.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.