My name is Michelle Butler,the mother of Curtis Zy-Keith Means.
I was pregnant for 21 weeks and one day when I gave birth on July 5th 2020.
Everything was going good I thought I was going to carry him all the way up until my due date.
I didn't know like all the commotion was going on where they were trying to you know continue to ask me how far along I was.
They kept on asking me like are you sure are you sure I'm like yes I'm sure 21 weeks.
So his birth was a complete shock.
I was called by my obstetrical colleagues that Curtis's mom was in the labor and delivery and she was precipitously about to deliver and they wanted me to go in and talk to her about the poor prognosis of babies being born at 21 weeks and one day and mom's question to me was can we give my babies a chance?
It was very stressful I was in the hospital for about four days and I got discharged and Curtis spent 275 days in the hospital.
Initially Curtis was on a lot of breathing support and medications for his heart and lungs to keep him alive and then over the next several weeks we were able to decrease the amount of support and help that we were giving him and then when he was about three months old we were able to finally take him off the ventilator and eventually when he was about nine months old we were able to send him home just on a nasal cannula oxygen and also with feeds through a gastrostomy tube.
When Curtis was discharged,there was so much excitement in the unit.
