On April 26th, 2013 Milo Joel Ausonio was born at 24 weeks. He weighed a little over one pound and was thirteen inches long. His mother, Marcie Ausonio was admitted to the hospital the day before because doctors thought she had Braxton Hicks, a condition where women go into false labor. Despite the doctor’s attempts to stop labor, her contractions were very much real, and Milo was born.
From the very beginning Milo and his family faced obstacles because of his premature birth. He needed a Patent Ductus Surgery to resolve a heart problem that causes abnormal blood flow between the major arteries connected to the heart, and a surgery to remove a few inches of his bowel.
Milo also needed treatment for retinopathy, an eye disease that causes abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye. Additionally, Milo developed two infections that almost took his life.
Marcie told LifeNews about Milo’s surgeries, and what doctors said about his condition:
“They had to do emergency surgery to remove a few inches of his bowels. He has a colostomy bag in the hospital but they did reversal surgery before he came home. They also discovered he had brain bleeding (grade 3 and the most severe kind you can have). They gave us the option of removing him from life support and letting him pass. They told us he would be severely disabled, blind, deaf, unable to talk or move, and oxygen dependent.”
However, Milo’s mother said no, and now he is doing well and meeting all the milestones for babies his age. Marcie said he is crawling everywhere, and is a healthy, happy boy with no lasting issues except he wears glasses.
While babies born at 24 weeks have a 40%-50chance of survival, more and more preemies are surviving because of modern medicine. Even though Milo faced challenges, if his mother would have given up on him, the world would have never known this beautiful little boy!
