How in the world is this even possible?
Baby Born To 37-Pound California Mom
POSTED: 6:16 am PST February 10, 2006
UPDATED: 6:20 am PST February 10, 2006
TULARE, Calif. -- A 3-foot-tall woman who weighs only 37 pounds has given birth to her first child.
Eloysa Vasquez, 38, suffers from Type 3 osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder that makes bones soft and easily broken. Her tiny, distorted body left little room for a fetus to grow and Vasquez suffered two miscarriages before doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital delivered her son, Timothy, by Cesarean section on Jan. 24.
"We just took one day at a time. We had a lot of people praying for us. We just believed ... and here we have our son," Vasquez told The Fresno Bee for a story Thursday.
Baby Timothy weighed only 3 pounds 7 ounces at birth because doctors had to deliver him eight weeks prematurely to protect the mother's fragile health. The child did not inherit his mother's genetic condition.
Vasquez's husband, Roy, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall, said his wife's small stature can be deceiving. "She's very strong. She's a strong lady," he said.
According to Stanford, only one in 25,000 to 50,000 births are to a mother with osteogenesis imperfecta, and even fewer involve moms with the severe form with which Vasquez was born. Smith estimates Timothy's birth was a one-in-a-million event.
