During premature labor, doctors suggested abortion. Instead, their daughter beat the odds.

A United Kingdom family is celebrating their daughter after she spent 15 months fighting to survive in the NICU.

Born at 22 weeks, doctors said Maysa Hussain “wouldn’t make it” after her mother, Kamilah Parvez, went into labor early. The terrified parents went to Birmingham Women’s Hospital, where doctors were less than reassuring. “My pregnancy was normal to start with. It was a spontaneous labour. I went to hospital because I had a bleed,” she told the Birmingham World. “They told me I was 2cm dilated and she had a 7% survival rate.The doctors kept asking me if we were sure we wanted to continue with the pregnancy. We were told if she was born and not breathing that they would not resuscitate her.”

“I remember when they told me the survival rate and I just thought how I can’t lose her,” she said. “We really tried with this pregnancy, in my head I was so upset and I just couldn’t lose her. I was in the labour ward for a day and the same night my waters broke and I was rushed down. We both got very poorly and doctors told me if she wasn’t breathing when she was born they wouldn’t resuscitate her.”

Medical advancements have allowed premature children to survive at younger and younger ages, though they have to be given the chance to live. Doctors often will still (as in Maysa’s case) refuse to provide lifesaving care, seeing micropreemies as a lost cause. Yet studies have found that up to 71% of premature infants born at 22 and 23 weeks can survive if they are given active care, instead of just palliative care. A growing number of preemies have survived after being born at 21 weeks.

The day after Parvaz was checked into the hospital, Maysa was born; after spending a few months in the NICU at Birmingham Women’s, she was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. There, Maysa had to overcome numerous obstacles, including an influenza diagnosis.

“She caught it off another child on the ward,” Parvez said. “This caused an infection in her gut. We were told she would need emergency surgery and she might not pull through. She had 10cm of her bowel removed and we were told to say our goodbyes. We said we wouldn’t sit around the hospital as we would be thinking the worst. We went off into town to distract ourselves but even then all we could think about was her. We were waiting for that dreaded phone call to tell us she didn’t make it.”

Thankfully, Maysa did make it, and in September of 2022 — 15 months after she was born — she was finally allowed to go home.

“It was an amazing feeling, in my head I always said I would take it a day at a time but I always looked forward to taking her home,” she said. “At one point I didn’t think I would ever be able to take her home. Since she has been home she has been thriving. She is a little diva, honestly, everyone loves her, she makes people smile. We are still behind on development as she was premature, she isn’t able to talk and is non-verbal, but she has the biggest personality – we are so proud.”