Preemie baby goes home after 135 days in hospital

A baby born at 25 weeks following a high-risk pregnancy has been able to go home after 135-days in hospital.

Early in her pregnancy, US mum Taytum was diagnosed with a subchorionic haemorrhage, where blood collects between areas of the uterus. Levi was born on Christmas day by emergency caesarian section after a life-threatening complication. He was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) as Taytum was taken into surgery to stop the bleeding.

The parents described their time in the NICU as “a roller-coaster”. But, after more than four months, Levi was well enough to go home and is growing and developing well.

Scared and exhausted

Recalling the day Levi was born, Dad Nick, said: “I was in shock from seeing my wife go under and meeting my son for the first time all within 30 minutes.”

He recalled how hard it was to leave his son in the hospital for the first time: “You feel guilty for leaving him. He’s so innocent, you wanna help him, but there’s nothing you can really do”.

Taytum explained: “I truly don’t know how our family would have made it through those 135 days without Nick. While I was recovering from a traumatic birth, processing everything that had happened, and learning how to be a mom in the NICU, he was somehow holding all three of us together.

“He was scared and exhausted too, but he was still the person I leaned on every single day.”

Overwhelmed with gratitude

As a way of thanking NICU staff, the couple provided a meal. Taytum said: “we got to host so many of the people whose quick decisions saved Levi’s life, whose hands cared for him when we couldn’t, and whose kindness carried us through the hardest days of our lives.

“Somehow, they stopped feeling like doctors and nurses a long time ago. They became family.”

She added: “seeing everyone together again, it was impossible not to feel overwhelmed with gratitude. These are the people who carried us through the hardest chapter of our lives, and now they get to watch the little boy they fought so hard for continue to grow.

“We’ll never be able to thank this team enough”.