Premature baby now home after 9-month NICU stay at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge

PARK RIDGE, Ill. — A premature baby who spent the first nine months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit in a Park Ridge-area hospital went home for the first time on Wednesday.

Nathan Zarate was born at 25 weeks, weighing 14 ounces, at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge.

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Doctors performed an emergency cesarean section on Nathan’s mother, Alicia Zarate. She had been suffering from pre-eclampsia and a fetal growth restriction that threatened Nathan’s life.

“It was a long journey with a lot of ups and downs, for sure, but we made it. We’re ready for a new journey at home,” Alicia Zarate said.

Dr. Michael Cappello, an Advocate Children’s Hospital neonatologist, said Nathan is doing great.

“He is thriving, he smiles, he laughs. We’re all very proud of what we’ve all done, but what’s he done the most.”

Hospital staff lined the halls Wednesday to wish Nathan and his parents well as he left the hospital.

Doctors say Nathan is now 14 pounds.

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