Who says miracles don’t happen? Meet Emilia, she’s a miracle. She’s the world’s tiniest baby, what’s more surprising is the fact that Emilia survived such an early delivery. Emilia is the “world’s smallest baby’, she’s just 8.6 inches or 22 centimeters long, Emilia weighed no more than a “bell pepper” and her inch-long feet is smaller than a thumbnail.
This world’s smallest baby Emilia Grabarczyk has defied the odds, she showed that miracles do happen. She was born in the Witten, west Germany, measuring only 8.6 inches and weighing a mere eight ounces (229 grams), everyone believed that she would not survive.
The doctors and the hospital staff treating her labelled her ‘the little fighter‘, she survived and she thrived. She surprised everyone. The local German reports say that she’s the lightest premature baby in the world to survive. A large banana weighs about 7 ounces and an orange weighs around 6 ounces, Emilia weighed just 8 ounces.
The head of children and youth clinic at St Mary’s hospital in Germany Dr Bahman Gharavi called Emilia’s survival a miracle. He said that the combined effort of paediatricians, gynaecologists and paediatric surgeons is remarkable, but it was Emilia’s will to live that made this miracle possible. He said,
Even children with a birth weight of 14 ounces rarely survive. We have to thank Emilia as well for her own survival. She is a little fighter. For more than six months, it was unclear whether she would survive. Only in recent weeks she is getting more robust.
Emilia was born so early that it led to subsequent complications. The Prof Dr Sven Schiermeier, chief physician of obstetrics, together with the parents’ consent decided in the beginning of the 26th week of pregnancy, to deliver the baby by Caesarean section. Otherwise Emilia would have died in the womb, she was not getting the required nutrition.
Emilia’s early arrival and very low birth was surrounded by a lot of uncertainties. There was an increased risk for complications including an increased risk of hyperactivity and learning difficulties. But Emilia showed no signs of serious disability.
Emilia was initially fed with a tiny tube. The hospital staff and nurses used a cotton bud soaked in sugar water to reduce her pain or discomfort. Her mother Mrs Grabarczyk said:
There were many difficult days and many tears, but she clearly wanted to survive.
