A mother whose baby son could fit in her hand after birth was told he “wouldn’t make it.” But he’s now home and thriving after 181 days in hospital.
Krysten Risbon, 22, from Altoona, Pennsylvania, went into labor at 23 weeks and six days, 16 weeks early, giving birth to baby Zaylan Reed, who weighed just 1 pound 6 ounces (approx. 0.62 kilograms). Baby Zaylan had a hole in his heart and spent the next few months on and off oxygen. But he’s finally home, and Ms. Risbon, inspired by the care she received, is now studying to become a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse.
“They had told us he probably wasn’t going to make it,” Ms. Risbon said. “He’s a little fighter. He’s a miracle.”
Ms. Risbon and her partner, Janerio Reed, 20, were over the moon when they found out they were expecting their first baby in August 2022. When she started bleeding at 23 weeks and six days and went to hospital, her doctors assumed it was a yeast infection and sent her home with medication, she said.
“I instantly started having more pain," Ms. Risbon said. “I was up all night screaming.”
The couple went back to hospital when her pain didn’t ease, and doctors discovered she was 4 centimeters (1.57 inches) dilated. “They said, ‘You’re going to have this baby today. He’s probably not going to make it,’” she said. “I started crying.”
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Ms. Risbon was taken by helicopter to UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital which has specialist tiny baby equipment.
“It was scary. I just kept thinking ‘Please just get us there,’” Ms. Risbon said. “Nobody could come with me. I just felt like everything was going to be okay.”
Ms. Risbon was given steroids to help the baby’s lungs, and the doctors were able to delay the birth for another two days, until Dec. 23, 2022. Mr. Reed cut the cord before his son was whisked away to the neonatal unit.
“When they took him down I was pretty scared,“ Ms. Risbon said. “He was so tiny he fit in the palm of my hand.”
Zaylan was born with a hole in his heart. He also developed retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disease that can occur when babies are born prematurely, and had to undergo surgery to improve his eyesight.
After his months-long stay in the hospital, Zaylan was fitted with a feeding tube and was able to come home on June 21, 2023.
“It’s unreal having him home,“ Ms. Risbon said. ”It’s pretty insane. I can’t believe how small he was.
“He used to hold my finger with his whole hand. He used to be the size of a thumbprint of his foot. He’s pretty funny. He’s a grump—he gives me the side eye. He smiles and laughs all the time.”
Ms. Risbon will start her studies to be a nurse in the autumn at Mount Aloysius College.
