SOMERSET, England, September 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A miracle baby girl, given only a one-percent chance of survival by doctors, has defied the odds.
Kaci-Rose Cratchley was born 16 weeks prematurely, at 23 weeks' gestation.
Doctors said that if the mother, Sadie, had gone into labor one day sooner, they would not have tried to save Kaci-Rose.
“I don't know why I went into labor so early, but if I had gone into hospital a day earlier they would have sent me home to have a miscarriage,” Sadie said.
“I was terrified,” Sadie explained. “We were told there was a one percent chance of her surviving labor. When they told me that, I just cried and cried.”
The doctors asked the 20-year-old mother and her husband, Marc, 27, to decide whether they wanted the medical team to try to save Kaci-Rose or not. “They told us that they could try, but that she probably wasn't going to make it. It was a terrifying moment.”
Little Kaci-Rose was born weighing just over one pound, and she measured just 10.8 inches tall.
“She was literally the size of my hand when she was born,” Sadie continued. “She was bright red and her skin was really sticky. You could see all her veins.”
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Immediately transferred to the neonatal unit at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, Kaci-Rose was attached to breathing tubes and was put on medication to help her kidneys function.
Sadie and Marc were not able to hold Kaci-Rose until she was off the ventilator, at 11 weeks old.
At almost six months, Kaci-Rose weighed six pounds, and mom and dad were finally allowed to take her home to Highbridge, Somerset.
The miracle baby is now eight months old, weighs eight and a half pounds, and is 22 inches tall – about the same as the average newborn. She still needs an oxygen tube and close monitoring.
“We were told she will probably have cerebral palsy, but it is too early to tell yet,” Sadie shared. “We were also told she would be blind and deaf, but she can hear and see.”
“So far she has proved everyone wrong.”
Sadie said she and Marc are “thrilled” at how far Kaci-Rose has come. “It has been very bumpy and emotional and it is still hard,” she said. “We take each day as it comes, but at the moment we are just enjoying spending time with her.”
