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Meet the most premature baby
Jun 27, 2024
Curtis Zy-Keith Means (USA) was born to Michelle Butler on 5 July 2020 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital in Alabama, USA, at a gestational age of 21 weeks 1 day, or 148 days, making him 132 days premature. The original due date had been 14 November 2020.
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My name is Michelle Butler, the mother of Curtis Keith Means
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I was pregnant for 21 weeks and one day when I gave birth on July 5th, 2020
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Everything was going good. I thought I was going to carry them all the way up until my due date
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I didn't know like all the commotion was going on where they were trying to, you know, continue
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to ask me how far along I was. They kept on asking me like, are you sure
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Are you sure? I'm like, yes, I'm sure. 21 weeks. So his birth was a complete shock
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I was called by my obstetrical colleagues that Curtis' mom was in the labor and delivery
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and she was precipitously about to deliver. And they wanted me to go in and talk to her about the poor prognosis of babies being born
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at 21 weeks and one day. And mom's question to me was, can we give my babies a chance
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It was very stressful. I was in the hospital for about four days and I got discharged and Curtis spent 275
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days in the hospital. Initially, Curtis was on a lot of reading support and medications for his heart and
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lungs to keep him alive. And then over the next several weeks, we were able to decrease the amount of support and
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help that we were giving him. And then when he was about three months old, we were able to finally take him off the ventilator
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And eventually when he was about nine months old, we were able to send him home just on
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a nasal cannula oxygen and also with feeds through a gastrostomy tube
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When Curtis was discharged, there was so much excitement in the unit
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Curtis was a special young man and there was something unique about him and it was much excitement
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Everyone was taking pictures with him and his mom with her permission
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His health has been good. He has oxygen. He's on a half a liter of oxygen right now and he's on medication to help with his fluid
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in his body for his lungs and some medicine for his hypertension
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He's good with me. He's awesome. Jump, spit at you, scratch you, fall out on you, raise his voice at you
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My family support is real good. I even got family in Michigan where they video me just about every day to see him
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They still video us and I got my support team right here
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They see him every day. They can't go a day without seeing him. And then my kids, they help me out a lot too
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Survival at this gestational age has never happened before. So before Curtis was born, his chances of survival would have been less than 1%
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Well the first thing that went through my mind, I'm excited for Curtis and his mother
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The mom made the first campaign for Curtis to be alive. She was a champion for her baby
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She spoke up for her baby and I'm so thankful that we listened to her
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The doctor had told me that he was the smallest baby. When I got discharged from the hospital, he came and spoke with me and told me that
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he still did his research and he's still considered the smallest baby that was born premature
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Setting this record is a blessing that he has accomplished and I'm thankful that they
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accepted him for the Guinness of Records. I'm very proud because where he came from and where he at now, I could tell the difference
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in him
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