Baby Jude Peters was diagnosed with a rare medical condition, and his parents were advised by doctors to “terminate and try again”.
But the “brave little warrior” has just celebrated his first birthday, despite doctors predicting he would only live for a few weeks.
“They told me that he might not be compatible with life outside of the womb,” his mother, Hannah Peters, told FOX News.
Refused
But Hannah and her husband Sullivan, from North Carolina, said they couldn’t have been happier to find out they were going to be parents and refused to have an abortion.
Jude was diagnosed with Rhizomelic Chondrodysplasia Punctata (RCDP), a rare form of dwarfism, which currently affects only 53 people worldwide.
Doctors say that 60 per cent of people with RCDP die within the first year.
One today
Hannah said, “when he was born, they sent him home on hospice and said he wouldn’t make it a few weeks”.
But Hannah wrote in a recent blog post: “You are ONE today! They said this day would never come. But you never stop defying the odds. You are constantly shocking doctors and doing things they said you never would.
“You can eat by mouth, move your arms and legs, you aren’t in constant pain anymore, you socially connect with us and anyone, you are gaining head control, you are breathing on your own and you are FIGHTING.”
Little fighter
Jude’s grandmother, Darla Collins, said Jude was a “little fighter” and that they were going to fight with him the entire way.
She said: “They can have normal life spans. That’s pretty much the goal that we all have. That they would be able to live a long life”.
Baby Jude’s parents are now trying to raise awareness of this rare medical condition, and raise money towards finding treatment.
A Facebook page called Praying For Jude Sullivan Peters was set up by the family and has over 23,000 ‘Likes’.