North Carolina firefighters reunite with micro-preemie they helped to deliver

It’s not every day that first responders save the life of an extremely premature baby, but on January 5, that’s what happened in North Carolina — and five months later, they reunited with her and her parents.

Halena Khen, 22, didn’t know she was pregnant, so when she was seized by crippling pain, her family called 911, thinking she was having severe cramps. Firefighters from Charlotte Firehouse 21 rushed to the scene to find Khan in distress.

Her family told Engine 21 crew — including Captain Shane Fields, Stephen Taylor, and Grant White — that something had “fallen out” of Khen. The first responders immediately presumed she had perhaps miscarried. But after removing her pajama pants, Taylor and White saw a motionless baby on the ground, tiny and seemingly stillborn. 

Taylor, who was working his first day with Firehouse 21, picked the child up to wrap her in a towel, when suddenly she let out a faint cry.

She was so small — later estimated by the hospital at around 20-22 weeks gestation — that Taylor held her in one hand, and her legs didn’t even reach his watchband. The firefighters quick work to stabilize mother and child and get them to the hospital with EMS teams saved their lives.

The City of Charlotte reported:

In the ambulance, the crew tried to use a neonatal bag valve mask to provide oxygen, but even that was too large. They improvised with a non-rebreather mask, giving the baby blow-by oxygen as Taylor held her close. 

At the hospital, doctors were stunned. The baby was alive and breathing on her own. Staff estimated she was around 20 to 22 weeks gestation. Taylor watched as they laid her on the scale: one pound, seven ounces. 

Baby Leilani weighed in at the hospital at one pound, seven ounces, and she stayed in the hospital for a few months.

Throughout that time, Khen sent updates on her baby’s growth to the first responders at Firehouse 21. 

Then, this year on Father’s Day, Khen, Leilani, and Christian Chavez (baby Leilani’s father) made a visit to Firehouse 21 in Charlotte. It was the first time the firefighter EMTs and the family had all been together since that January day when Leilani made her surprise entrance.

“It’s surreal,” said White. “What we saw that day didn’t even look real. Her skin was translucent. You could see every vein. And now she’s here. She looks like any other baby.” 

The youngest known surviving premature babies have been born at 21 weeks gestation; at 22 weeks gestation, the rate of survival is around 28%. Leilani is a miraculous survivor at the same gestational age when it is legal in dozens of states to end the lives of children by abortion.