The world’s youngest premature baby, who weighed 10 ounces and was born 133 days early, has defied the odds and recently celebrated his first birthday.
This past year has been a whirlwind for parents Mollie and Randall Keen, who welcomed their son Nash on July 5, 2024.
“It feels surreal, honestly. A year ago, we weren’t sure what the future would look like, and now we’ve celebrated his first birthday,” said Mollie.
Nash, nicknamed ‘Nash Potato’, officially holds the Guinness World Record for the most premature baby to survive.
His parents had already experienced the heartbreak of losing a baby when Mollie’s first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.
“We had a daughter in September of ’23. She was born almost 18 weeks gestation, so she was born prematurely as well,” Mollie recalled. “I checked myself into the ER, and sure enough, I was starting to dilate. At that point, my water had broke and there was nothing they could do.”
Mollie learned she had a condition known as “incompetent cervix,” which means the lower part of the cervix begins to dilate too early.
Six months later, the Keens learned there was another baby on the way.
“We were so excited, but also very nervous. We didn’t get our hopes up. We didn’t decorate the nursery,” Mollie shared.
However, she says that around 20 weeks into her pregnancy, things began to feel off.
“When we went to our local doctor’s office for the 20-week scan for Nash, I just had some concerns about how I was feeling, so I asked them to look at me closer — which they normally don’t do at that appointment — and they found I was already 2 centimeters dilated,” she explained.
A few days later, she began to have contractions and was placed on bed rest.
“We were devastated,” she said. “We thought we were going through the exact same thing — we thought we were going to lose this baby.”
Mollie then remembered a conversation she had with another NICU mom.
“She said if you’re anywhere near [the] University of Iowa, make the trip. They’re starting to take life-saving measures at 21 weeks,” Mollie recalled. “I needed to get up to Iowa City… we just wanted to give Nash a chance.”
The medical team delayed Mollie’s delivery by 10 hours, so that little Nash could surpass the 21-week mark.
When he arrived, he weighed a mere 10 ounces, which is less than the size of a grapefruit.
Mollie says she remembers the whirlwind.
“When he came out, it was [like] everything happened so fast. He was so small and so fragile. I mean, you could literally see through his skin. They gave us a quick ‘here’s your son’ and then took him back and then started to resuscitate him, trying to put a tube through basically something the size of a gerbil.”
The medical team quickly worked to provide medicine to support Nash’s organ development and reduce complications.
“It is important for parents to understand most survival rates are low, and if babies do survive, they have a very high risk of long-term complications, even at 22 weeks,” said Malinda Schaefer, M.D., Ph.D., the high-risk obstetrician who delivered Nash.
As long as he could be placed on a breathing tube, his chances of survival greatly increased.
“Sometimes babies born at 21 weeks are just too small for even our tiniest breathing tubes and intravenous lines,” said neonatologist Amy Stanford, who treated Nash. “Our NICU team assessed Nash, and I was able to place a breathing tube. Once we had the breathing tube in, his heart rate stabilized and his oxygen levels were good.”
“While Nash faced many critical challenges early on, he showed remarkable resilience. After those first few extremely delicate weeks, he began to make steady progress, which was truly extraordinary to witness,” she added.
For the next 182 days, Nash remained in the NICU at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital before he was finally allowed to go home in January.
Nash is growing stronger and more interactive each day.
He is moving toward getting off oxygen and is continuing to make strides in therapy.
“He’s learning how to stand on his two feet, which is awesome,” his mom said. “He’s got a lot of strength in those legs.”
Stanford says her ultimate goal is “that by the time he’s 5 years old, when he goes to kindergarten, no one will know that he was born so early.”
Mollie shared that she is incredibly proud of her son.
“I want him to grow up and be healthy, happy, and confident in who he is. I want him to see his story is a source of strength,” she expressed.
“Nash is so full of personality. He’s a happy baby,” Mollie added. “Being in the NICU as long as he was, you’d think that he would be, you know, more fragile and stuff. And he’s not. He’s a very determined, curious little boy, and he’s just all smiles all the time.”
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