Baby Born at 23 Weeks and Given 5% Chance of Surviving Just Celebrated His 3rd Birthday
When Jase-James McCready Rogers was born prematurely weighing only 1 pound, doctors told his parents that his chance of survival was only about 5 percent.
But the Lancashire, England boy did survive and overcame many obstacles in the months after his birth. This week, he celebrated his third birthday, The Blackpool Gazette reports.
“Jase still has his difficulties and we always knew that he would, like any child born so premature. But when you think what he has been through, he’s doing really well,” his mother, Leah Rogers, told the newspaper.
In early January 2020, Rogers said she began to experience symptoms of miscarrying and rushed to the hospital. She was only 23 weeks pregnant.
Jase was born alive on Jan. 5, 2020 at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Lancashire, weighing 1.1 pounds, and doctors told his parents to prepare for the worst, according to the report.
He was rushed to another hospital for more intensive care and spent two months on life support, his mother said. Jase also was born with a hole in his heart and suffered through two brain bleeds, she said.
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Three years later, the little boy is home and doing well, Leah Rogers continued. He still has health problems because of his premature birth, but the family is thankful he is alive and improving.
“A few months ago he could just say ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ but one day he suddenly came out with ‘apple.’ Now he knows lots of fruits: apple, pear and nana,” his mother said.
She continued: “Jase occasionally has problems with his eyes turning inwards but that happens very rarely now. His immune system is not good and he has chronic lung disease which can trouble him, so we have to be very careful.”
After all that Jase overcame, Rogers said she believes her son’s life is a miracle.
“We would rather have him as he is than not have him at all, we’re so lucky to have him, it’s a miracle he is with us!” she said.
Modern medical advances are enabling younger and smaller premature babies to survive and thrive. The smallest recorded surviving baby weighed less than 9 ounces at birth in California. The earliest known premature baby to survive outside the womb was born at 21 weeks and four days of pregnancy. In 2017, the journal Pediatrics highlighted the girl’s survival story.
Recent studies out of Duke University and the New England Journal of Medicine have found that a growing percent of premature infants are surviving as early as 22 weeks of pregnancy. The research recently prompted the British Association of Medicine to issue new guidelines encouraging medical treatment for babies born at just 22 weeks of pregnancy. Previously, the guidelines did not recommend treatment until 24 weeks.
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