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Smallest Surviving Baby Ever Born Finally Goes Home From Hospital

by Julie Nealon | March 1, 2019

The smallest surviving baby ever born has finally gone home, healthy. The baby boy, who has not yet been named was born last August weighing a tiny 0.59lbs – the size of an onion. He was born via cesarean section at Keio University Hospital in Tokyo after a routine scan at twenty-four weeks revealed that the boy wasn’t growing.

Smallest Surviving Baby Ever Born Finally Goes Home From Hospital

His weight hadn’t increased after twenty-four weeks gestation and the doctors, worried that his life was in danger, decided that an emergency cesarean section was necessary to save the boy’s life. He was so little when he was born, he fit perfectly in a pair of hands.

Japan Times reports that the boy was treated in Keio University Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit for almost six months until he was able to breathe on his own. He eventually grew to a healthy seven lbs and was able to breastfeed successfully. Two months after his initial due date, he left the neonatal intensive care unit to go home last Wednesday.

The pediatricians who treated the boy are hoping that his success story will give parents of premature babies some hope. Dr. Takeshi Arimitsu, of Keio University Hospitals’ neonatal intensive care unit, said he wants people to know that babies can eventually go home, ‘vigorous,’ even if they are born really small.

According to the Tiniest Babies register, by the University of Iowa, the previous record holder for smallest surviving baby ever born was a German newborn, who was born in 2009 at twenty-four weeks and weighing in at a tiny 0.6 lbs. The smallest surviving premature baby girl, who also happens to be German was born in 2015, weighing 0.56 lbs. The register states that of the 23 smallest surviving babies who have been born prematurely, only four have been male.