[QODLink]
Americas
Miracle baby stays in hospital
Doctors cautious as world's smallest premature infant heads "into the world".
Last Modified: 20 Feb 2007 22:27 GMT
Doctors say Taylor is the world's smallest
prematurely born baby  [AFP]

Doctors have kept the world's smallest premature baby in hospital for a few extra days over concerns for her health.
 
Amillia Sonja Taylor, who as born after less than 22 weeks gestation, was expected to return home from hospital on Tuesday, but doctors decided to keep her in hospital as a precaution.
"She has been fine," Paul Fassbach, the doctor who has cared for Taylor since shortly after she was born, said.
 
But routine tests showed her white blood cell count was low, he said - an indication she could have an infection.
Fassbach said doctors were being especially cautious "now that she's going into the world".
 
Taylor, who has been in an incubator since she was born on October 24, was just 24cm long and weighed less than 283g.
 
"Even though she's only four pounds now, she's plump to me," Sonja Taylor, the baby's mother, said.
 
Baby Taylor has suffered respiratory and digestive problems, as well as a mild brain hemorrhage, but doctors believe there will not be any major long-term concerns.
 
Doctors say she is the world's smallest prematurely born baby and the first baby known to have survived after a gestation of fewer than 23 weeks.
 
Full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks.
Source:
Agencies
Topics in this article
People
Featured on Al Jazeera
An unflinching portrait of physical labour in the 21st century.
The stark choice between a fascist or an imperialist course in Syria should be discarded for a third and better course.
Israel's propaganda machine carefully chooses its words to assert illegal ownership over Jerusalem and Palestine.
As Western fears grow over Iran's continuing nuclear programme, we ask how a military strike could impact the region.
<  > 
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go