10 Ounce Baby Born at Charlotte Hospital

One of the smallest surviving babies in the world has been born at Carolinas HealthCare System, according to hospital officials. E’layah Faith Pegues is a little more than three months old. She weighs 3 pounds, 10 ounces now, but she was only a tiny 10 ounces, 10 inches when she was born about three months early.

Her journey coming into this world and being in this world has been anything but easy. E’layah’s mom, Megan Smith, said about five months into her pregnancy her blood pressure was high and she almost had two strokes.

Smith said, “They were trying to set us up for the possibility of her not living, and I wasn’t accepting that.”

And then there was the moment when E’layah was in her womb and she stopped feeling her move.

The doctor said it was time to do an emergency C-section.

Smith’s fiancé had just left the room when she got the news that doctors were going to deliver their baby. She said so many thoughts were running through her head. Smith said, “I’m by myself. What am I going to do? Is my baby going to live? Is anybody going to be here when I wake up? But I prayed.”

She added, “I was just so filled with joy that she (E’layah) was ok. She came out.”

Her doctor expects little E’layah will live a normal life. She’s expected to go home from the hospital in a week or two. Her doctor says recent advances in ventilator care and better nutrition through IVs are key factors in helping premature babies survive.