Baby girl born five months early reunites with hospital staff that saved her life

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The parents who thought they'd lose their baby girl shortly after her birth are able to snuggle their now healthy six-month-old thanks to a Spokane hospital.

Baby Jane was born at just 22 weeks, nearly five months early. During her pregnancy, Andrea Fernald and her husband, Chad, were told by doctors near their home in Idaho their daughter Jane would only live minutes to an hour after birth.

"We were sent home and told, 'Just give birth at home and let her die at home,'" said Andrea.

It was devastating news for the expectant parents.

"We had tried for three years to get pregnant. We thought that we couldn't and that it was an absolute miracle that we were. It was the most exciting day of our life. It was. And then, to know that before we even really got to meet her, we could be losing her," said Andrea.

Andrea and Chad decided to deliver at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, with a care team that offered their baby a chance at survival.

"I caught her when she was born and she was impossibly small and incredibly early, the earliest delivery I have every been at," said Deaconess Neonatal Nurse, Tara Forter. "She made a little mouth squeak and she was moving her arms and legs and I was like, 'You've got sass.'"

The Fernalds and their medical team knew Jane's care plan would be complicated.

"It was a really hard conversation. Are we going to resuscitate? Are we going to try this? Are we going to do it? And the answer was, yeah, we're going to try it one time, and if she doesn't want to hang out, then she's not going to hang out," said Andrea.

Jane's survival is not only a miracle, but also a lesson for the field of medicine.

"Teams that have been a part of taking care of Jane, throughout the spectrum, will now remember that they took care of a baby that was born at 22 weeks," said Dr. Rucha Shukla, Neonatologist at Deaconess.

Six months later, Jane and her family reunited with Dr. Shukla and the rest of Jane's care team to celebrate her healthy growth and resilience.

The Fernalds said they are now bonded and grateful to the care team that loved the tiny baby as their own.

"There was a lot of medical knowledge that kept Jane alive. But more than that, I honestly think it was the love that was given to her day-in and day-out and every night by her care team," said Andrea. "I think that, and I don't know how to express enough gratitude for that because she is genuinely loved."

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