Youngest Baby

World's Youngest Baby Born In Miami
Amillia Taylor Born After 21 Weeks, 6 Days

POSTED: Monday, February 19, 2007
[Amillia Taylor was born at Baptist Children's Hospital in October weighing only 10 ounces. She was slightly bigger than a pen.]
Amillia Taylor was born at Baptist Children's Hospital in October weighing only 10 ounces. She was slightly bigger than a pen.
MIAMI -- Sonja and Eddie Taylor's baby girl has earned a lot of nicknames during her four months in intensive care -- Queen B, Princess, Miracle -- but none is perhaps more perfect than her given name, Amillia.

"We were looking through the Internet and it meant fighter, resilient," Sonja Taylor said.

Amillia had to be to overcome some incredible odds.

"Survival of babies that is less than 22 weeks of gestation is close to zero, if not zero," said Dr. Phuket Tantavit, who specializes in neonatology.

The medical standard is not even to resuscitate a 22-week baby, so when Sonja Taylor knew she was going into labor in October after just 19 weeks, she lied about the baby's term.

Doctors worked to delay the birth, but nine days later, they had no choice but to perform an emergency C-section, thinking they were delivering a 23-week baby.

"I was prepared for the worst and prepared to break the bad news to the mother," said Dr. Guillermo Lievano, who delivered Amillia.

Weighing only 10 ounces, Tantavit inserted a breathing tube in Amillia. She responded surprisingly well, at which time Tantavit thought Amillia, slightly bigger than a pen, was something special.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Holly Neville was immediately called upon to repair Amillia's left ear and much of her scalp, which was torn during delivery and left dangling.

"She was literally just a coke can under sterile drapes," Neville said.

Normally, the skin of a baby that age wouldn't accept stitches or handling, but somehow Amillia's skin was mature beyond her age.

"I had never seen such a small baby," Neville said.

It was months later when doctors verified Amillia's true age through her parent's fertility specialist and discovered the perfectly healthy baby was born at exactly 21 weeks and six days -- a world record.

"When you look at such a small miracle, you almost have to believe there's something else -- there's a higher power -- that allows us to do what we do," Lievano said.

Amillia is being released from Baptist Children's Hospital on Tuesday.

"I wanted her to have a chance and I knew in my heart that she was going to make it," Sonja Taylor said.