Baby boy born at 21 weeks sets record as world’s most premature baby to survive
A baby boy born at 21 weeks has been named in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most premature baby to have ever survived.
Curtis Zy-Keith Means was born on July 5, 2020, weighing just less than 1lb – just 14.8oz (420g) when his mother Michelle ‘Chelly’ Butler was just 21 weeks and one day pregnant.
The average weight of a newborn is around 7.5 lb (3.5 kg), while a full-term pregnancy is usually 40 weeks.
Guinness World Records has now confirmed that Curtis, who was 132 days – nearly 19 weeks – premature, set the new record.
The mother, who had been expecting twins, was set to have her babies, a boy and a girl, on or around November 11 last year.
But on July 4 something went wrong and she was rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) hospital.
Her babies were born the following day.
While the tiny boy fought hard for his life, his twin sister, C’Asya Means, did not respond to treatment in the same way her brother did and pass away after just one day.
To everyone’s amazement at the Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (RNICU), Curtis responded extraordinarily well to treatment and, as the days and weeks went on, he grew stronger and stronger.
Curtis’s ability to survive, despite how small and fragile, he was at the time surprised doctors as well.
On April, 6, 2021, 275 days after his birth, Curtis was declared strong enough to go home, an amazing feat for a child born in the state he was.
But his family need to provide round the clock medication and special equipment such as bottled oxygen and a feeding tube for him.
While he still does require a feeding tube and supplemental oxygen to assist him, Curtis is healthy at home with his family now.
In July he turned one year old, and ,this November he reached what his one year birthday would have been had he been born full-term.
‘He’s very active. I’m tired already!’ Butler said about her son.
‘I’m very proud of him because where he came from and where he at now, I can tell the difference.
‘Having this record is a blessing that he has accomplished and I’m thankful that [Guinness World Records] accepted him.’
Curtis was born one month to the day after Richard Hutchinson, who was born at 21 weeks and two days, who was previously named the most premature baby to ever survive.
Perhaps even more incredible, though, is that prior to Richard, this record had remained unbroken for 34 years. James Elgin Gill was born to Brenda and James Gill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, at a gestational age of 21 weeks 5 days, or 128 days premature, on 20 May 1987.
Source:dailyrecord.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk/, mirror.co.uk
