Baby Born 3 Months Premature Stuns Local Doctors With His Progress

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- Doctors at St. Barnabas Hospital are calling a baby, born three months premature and weighing less than one pound at birth, a miracle.

Baby Daniel Asante is one of about five infants born each year at St. Barnabas that weighs less than one pound. On average only two of those babies survive.

The doctors who delivered Daniel told CBS 2's Emily Smith that they were not sure that he would survive.

"You call it at that moment, and if it all turns out right it tells you that you called it right," Dr. Michael Ihemaguba said.

In three months Daniel has gained five pounds, has opened his eyes, and has began to squirm around. Those developments have doctors marveling, because Daniel wasn't supposed to be born until May.

CBS 2 was at the hospital when Daniel's mother, Bendicta Annan, arrived to take him home.

Annan almost didn't go to the hospital on the day that she gave birth. She told CBS 2 that she had a little bit of cramping, but she had no idea that she had preeclampsia, a potentially fatal condition that causes blood pressure to soar.

"My friend said just go, and I came in and they did what they had to do and I found out it was really bad," she said.

Daniel spent his first few months in an incubator, his breathing was supported by a ventilator.

"When they took him out, they showed him to me and he looked straight into my eyes it was a look that said 'mommy, I am sorry,'" said Annan.

Doctors said Annan coming to the hospital was a saving grace. One of the potential side effects of preeclampsia is a stroke, a side effect that was avoided by her hospital visit.

Roughly 7,500 babies are born weighing one pound or less every year, but only about 10 percent survive, according to doctors.

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