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.
“Obviously he was a scrapper from the start.”
He sure was. :)
end up simply tormenting a helpless creature who has no hope of ever being fully conscious and really living
I have seen this often with the very favorite of American lab rats...the aphasic barely conscious stroke patient.
Our Nernie made it at 3 lbs in the 1880’s. She was wrapped in a soft blanket and placed on the open oven door in a shoe box.
In the Scandinavian countries the premature without respiratory difficulties are slung between their mother’s breasts to stay warm and nourish.
Thank you Lord. Amen.
...sometimes the front seat drivers make very wrong calls too, and end up simply tormenting a helpless creature who has no hope of ever being fully conscious and really living, much less understanding why big creatures keep hurting him/her all the time. Sadly, that’s a much more common outcome for babies this size, whether they survive or not.
@@@@@
What, in your background enables you to make such a statement?
My grandmother, born in 1890, was also kept in soft blankets, and put in a shoe box, near the fireplace. She lived 87 years was a brilliant businesswoman and mother of 10.
“Our Nernie made it at 3 lbs in the 1880’s. She was wrapped in a soft blanket and placed on the open oven door in a shoe box.
In the Scandinavian countries the premature without respiratory difficulties are slung between their mother’s breasts to stay warm and nourish.”
Another great story! I would have guessed that a 3 lb. baby wouldn’t have made it without today’s technology, but I would have been wrong.
Yes, the medical profession often seems to be at its very worst at both extremes of the human lifespan.
Feel free to survey the medical literature yourself. Free abstracts of just about everything ever published in a legitimate medical journal are available at PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed The simple fact is that the number of babies born at this size who have survived at all, in any condition, can be counted on the fingers of one hand with fingers left over. But a lot have been born at this size and suffered practically non-stop medical interventions and a struggle to breathe even with a ventilator, for the few hours, days, or weeks before they died.
Every insertion of a catheter or tube or ventilator is painful, and some remain painful after they’re installed, and they can’t tolerate potent painkillers because their livers and kidneys aren’t developed enough to process them without severe damage. If they live more than a couple of days, they are subject to constant infections and everything that goes along with those. If you surf around a bit, you can find some articles written by doctors who are wracked with guilt about what they inflicted on some of these babies who had no real hope of survival to begin with.
Can you start a FReeper Preemie Mommie ping list? There are those of us out here that could use the support ;)
I was a NICU nurse for 20 years, with very close ties to our Follow-up Clinic where longitudinal studies have been ongoing all of these years.
And how many 10 ounce babies did you have under your care during that 20 years?
Cool! My wife was born 12 months premature weighing in at 2.2 pounds. For 1952 this was miraculous. We’ve been married for just under 32 years now and she’s definitely the brains of the outfit. :o) Congratulations!!!
I don’t remember a baby born at this weight, but some lost weight to 300 grams. It is very rare to be born this small, which is the reason for the article. This particular baby was small for her gestational age of 25 weeks, but may have had more mature lungs than others of her same gestational age.
One particular 25-week baby born nearer to 400 gms, that I was the Primary nurse for, for about 20 weeks went home weighing the same 5 1/2 lbs as this one. She is sixteen now and a lovely girl.
Logan’s Prayer Warriors!!!
Thanks LORD for this precious child of Yours...thank you for letting her go home with her parents...PLEASE continue to let her grow strong and healthy, in spite of the odds against her. In Your Name...AMEN!
((((((
Now, I’ve been asked to start a Preemie Ping List. I thought this was a rather appropriate place to do it!
IF YOU WANT ON THAT NEW LIST....will you please respond here or in FRmail?
Thank you! There’s lots of Mommies and Daddies out there who could use our support.
And, since I have you here....please pray for baby Kaydance, too....she’s Malachi’s new sister, and SHE’S a preemie...
Onward!
:)
I, Grammie, have spoken.
PING to Post # 75 regarding new Preemie Ping List.
Amen. Our God is a magnificent, and awesome Creator.
Prayers up.
Put me on the new list too Grammie.
I always have a moment for a spare prayer.
Hey Gramma!
Ya think I could get on your new PING list?
PLEASE SIGN ME UP!
Tanks a million!
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