A boy in Alabama is now the youngest record-holder Guinness has ever recognized, and all he had to do was live.
Curtis Butler has been given the title of most prematurely-born baby to ever survive by the world’s foremost record-keepers just a few months after his first birthday.
His mother Michelle was only five months pregnant with twins when she had to undergo emergency labor last summer. Born on July 5, 2020, her babies came into the world a full four months ahead of schedule – at just 21 weeks and 1 day of gestation – at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.
Full gestation is about 40 weeks.
Unfortunately, only Curtis made it. His twin sister C’Asya wasn’t nearly as developed and only survived for a day.
At the time of his birth, Curtis weighed a scant 14.8 ounces, a weight comparable to that of a soccer ball, according to UAB.
“Survival at this gestational age has never happened before, so before Curtis was born his chances of survival would have been far less than 1%,” Dr. Colm Travers, assistant professor at the hospital’s Division of Neonatology, told Guinness World Records in a statement.
Curtis received around-the-clock care at the hospital for a full 275 days, but consistently grew stronger.
“Numbers show that babies born so young have little to no chance of survival," said Dr. Brian Sims, the attending physician for the delivery. "We typically advise for compassionate care in situations of such extremely preterm birth.”
Curtis was finally discharged on April 6, 2021, and while he remains on medications and receives treatment, he is far better off than the day he was born.
“Being able to finally take Curtis home and surprise my older children with their younger brother is a moment I will always remember,” Michelle Butler told UAB.
The Guinness World Record had stood for 34 years, but has now been broken twice in the past year. The record-holder before Curtis Butler was Richard Hutchinson of Wisconsin.
He was born just a month before Curtis. His gestation had been just one day longer at 21 weeks, 2 days.
Related
