Child Born Weighing Much less Than 1 Lb. Heads Dwelling After 9 Months in NICUtheinsiderinsight

A child who weighed lower than 1 lb. when he was born is now residence from the hospital practically a 12 months after his beginning.

Nathan Zarate spent practically 300 days within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Advocate Kids’s Hospital in Park Ridge after he was born at 25 weeks in November 2023, based on a information launch from the hospital obtained by PEOPLE.

Though the journey wasn’t at all times straightforward, he was lastly launched on Wednesday. Aug. 28. 

“We’re simply very grateful that every little thing labored out the best way it did,” Nathan’s mom, Alicia Zarate, tells PEOPLE.

Alicia, 34, and her husband Jonathan Zarate, 36, discovered they have been anticipating their first baby collectively in late June 2023. The couple was keen to start out a household and “elated” by the information, Alicia tells PEOPLE.

The mother says her being pregnant was pretty regular, however in the future final November, Alicia was driving to work when she realized she did not really feel Nathan transferring in her stomach as he usually would.

She says she even had her husband play the tune “Increased” by Creed, which normally bought him to kick.
“Play the tune,” she remembers telling Jonathan. “If he does not flutter, I’ll the physician.”

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However Nathan didn’t transfer. Involved, Alicia visited her physician the very subsequent day and was despatched straight to the emergency room.

Medical doctors decided Alicia was experiencing signs of pre-eclampsia, in addition to a fetal progress restriction that threatened Nathan’s life inside her womb, based on the hospital.

The following day, Nathan was born through emergency c-section, weighing simply 14.3 oz — and was instantly intubated and delivered to the NICU.

Nathan “was the sickest child within the NICU” throughout his first week of life, says Dr. Michael Cappello, a neonatologist and vice-chair of pediatrics at Advocate Kids’s Hospital.

Along with experiencing eye injury and battling pneumonia, the new child underwent surgical procedure to restore a coronary heart defect and had a tracheostomy tube put in to assist his respiratory.

Alicia and Jonathan have been separated from Nathan for the primary two days of the new child’s life, based on the hospital’s press launch. Throughout that point, and within the tough weeks to return, the couple tells PEOPLE they leaned on their religion.

“We have been in a position to simply sort of get by means of it with prayer, and trusting God’s plan,” Alicia tells PEOPLE. Her husband Jonathan says they’d religion that the medical workforce caring for his or her new child son have been “able to performing a miracle” and “saving his life.”

And in the long run, Nathan, who now weighs 14 lbs., pushed by means of — and this week, it was lastly time to return residence.

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Alicia says the expertise of claiming goodbye was a tad bittersweet, although definitely “extra candy than bitter” — and that she can not thank all of medical doctors, nurses and different hospital staffers for his or her efforts to maintain Nathan alive.

“They’ve gone above and past for not solely Nathan, however for us with all of the help that they’ve achieved,” she tells PEOPLE. “It is simply actually laborious to place into phrases how grateful we actually are.”

Now, the Zarates are getting settled into their new day-to-day life with Nathan, who nonetheless has “ventilated help,” based on his mother and father.

“Now it is simply discovering a option to create a brand new norm,” Jonathan tells PEOPLE.

Alicia hopes their story “can convey hope to many different NICU households,” irrespective of how lengthy their baby stays there.

“I simply need them to know they don’t seem to be alone,” the mother tells PEOPLE. “There are others who’re wanting to assist and help, and it will get higher.”