Donna Burgess calls the last five months “a whirlwind.” To put it mildly, the 32-year-old from Kensington in Liverpool, England, was understating the journey she and Little Wade Burgess have experience since June 14.
Wade was still barely half-way through his prenatal development when Ms. Burgess’ water broke. Wade was just 23 weeks.
“They told me Wade had a 10% chance of survival,” Donna Burgess told The Mirror’s Joshua Taylor.
“I was in shock.
“I started shaking and my mum had to calm me down.
“It was heartbreaking.”
As Taylor explained, “ Babies born before 23 weeks are often not resuscitated because survival without major disability is so rare.” Taylor added the reminder that babies can be aborted up to 24 weeks under UK law (actually virtually until birth if prenatally diagnosed with an “abnormality”).
But now Wade’s home! After spending his first four months tethered to machines–and so underdeveloped his mother was not allowed to touch him–doctors allowed Ms. Burgess to bring home her “little miracle.” A miniscule 1pound, 3 ounces at birth, Wade clocked in at a healthy 9 pounds, 8 ounces, Taylor reported.
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That’s a long ways from where Wade and Ms. Burgess were five months ago. Burgess (the mother of three other children) said she didn’t even know she pregnant the first four months. Then….
“I was being sick so I took a test and found out.
“They got me in for a scan and by then I was nearly at five months.
“They said it was a boy.
“I had to break it to my family and everyone was in shock.
“And a few weeks later I had him.
“It was a whirlwind.”
The baby was initially kept in intensive care and needed steroids and blood transfusions to assist his growth. But Taylor writes that Wade’s “amazed doctors with his rapid progress.”
“Wade is the most premature baby to survive at Liverpool Women’s Hospital neonatal unit and it is great to see him go home after four and a half months in hospital,” said Bill Yoxall, clinical director of the neonatal unit at the Women’s Hospital.
How did Burgess feel when she brought him home? “I’m overwhelmed.”
“He is just a little miracle.
“Hopefully he will get bigger and bigger.
“It’s been a long time coming.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
