After birth at 22 weeks, micro-preemie finally heads home: ‘A baby miracle’

A Milwaukee couple is celebrating after their son, who was born at just 22 weeks, has finally been able to join them at home after 144 days in the hospital.

Jorge Joachin and Vatsanah Vongpana unexpectedly welcomed little baby Malakai on January 3, 18 weeks prematurely. The micro-preemie weighed less than a pound at birth; his early arrival and extremely small size necessitated a stay in the NICU at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee. The hospital reported that Malakai was one of the smallest and youngest infants they’d ever treated.

Milwaukee couple brings baby home | FOX6 News Milwaukee

“He was just about the size of my hand,” Joachin told Fox 6.

“I never thought I would be here, being able to hold him, and like, bring him home,” Vongpanya said. “It was a different experience than I really thought I was gonna have.”

The parents also praised the medical team that cared for their son. “They’re not human,” Joachin said. “They’re like superheroes.”

Now, Fox 6 reports that Malakai is thriving and weighs a healthy 7 pounds 7 ounces.

When asked what he sees now when he looks at his son, Joachin said, “I see a miracle. A baby miracle.”

Though it used to be unthinkable for babies born at 22 weeks to survive outside the womb, the survival rates of these tiny infants is rising. A 2022 study out of Stanford University found that about 28% of babies delivered at 22 weeks survived after receiving active treatment.

“When I was in residency in the mid-1980s, babies born at 500 grams [about 1.1 pounds] and 25 weeks didn’t survive; it just didn’t happen. Now we see the borderline of viability dropping to 22 weeks,” said neonatologist Krisa Van Meurs, MD, a Stanford Medicine emerita professor of pediatrics and a co-author on the study. “With all of these new treatment strategies we’ve developed, we’ve seen an amazing impact.”

That impact is reflected in the lives of babies like Malakai, who are alive today thanks to NICU advancements.

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