Micropreemie Had 10% Chance of Survival When Mom Gave Birth 4 Months Early. 153 Days Later, He Came Home

A Texas family is getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with their “miracle” baby at home after he arrived in the world far earlier than anyone expected.

“It was definitely a surprise,” mom Tricia Santiago says. “I had some stomach pain, so we thought, ‘We’ll go to the hospital just in case, out of precaution.’ ”

As she and her husband, Nel, walked into Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine, Tricia’s water suddenly broke.

She was immediately transferred to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where baby Emmett was born at just 22 weeks and six days on May 6.

Doctors were able to delay delivery long enough to give Emmett several rounds of steroids to help his lungs develop. Even so, he weighed only 1 lb. at birth and was initially given just a 10% chance of survival.

Tricia, who works as an asset protection investigator at a Walmart in Bedford, recalls that because Emmett was born so early in her second trimester, she was asked to make a heartbreaking choice: attempt to resuscitate him after delivery or provide “comfort care” and allow him to pass peacefully.

“We decided to do the resuscitation — and it took a second try, I know, for them to get the ventilator in, but they were able to, luckily,” she says. Even then, she wasn’t able to hold her son until June.

At 35, Tricia admits that she and 47-year-old Nel were anxious about what lay ahead for their tiny son.

“We definitely tried to stay hopeful but also temper our expectations,” she explains. “We knew his chances weren’t great, but we were going to do everything we could to give him a chance.”

Emmett seemed to share that determination.

Tricia and Nel met at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and married in January 2021. Tricia quickly became a stepmom, but the couple struggled to conceive a child together naturally.

Through Walmart, Tricia learned about a partnership with fertility and reproductive care company Kindbody, and the couple decided to try in vitro fertilization. On Dec. 16, 2024, she underwent her first embryo transfer and found out she was pregnant by Christmas.

After Emmett’s extremely early arrival, he spent almost five months in the hospital at Baylor.

Day by day, he slowly grew stronger, progressing from a ventilator to a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine and eventually to an oxygen tank.

For his parents, the months in the neonatal intensive care unit were emotionally exhausting and physically draining.

“We both worked full-time, so we’d work and then drive — it could take up to an hour with traffic — just to see him,” Tricia says. “It was hard every day to leave him there.”

By September, Emmett was finally strong enough to start preparing to go home. Hospital staff trained Tricia and Nel on how to care for him there, including how to manage a feeding tube and an oxygen generator.

After 153 days in the hospital, Emmett “graduated” on Sept. 30.

“It was very exciting,” Tricia says. “Definitely a little scary because he did come home on oxygen support, and we were recommended to get him 24/7 nursing care due to his oxygen needs. But it’s tough to get that covered, just because of how extensive I’m sure it is.”

Tricia is hoping Emmett will qualify for Medicaid, but she says the recent federal government shutdown slowed down their ability to apply.

Meanwhile, Nel, who works in advertising, has had to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act so he can help care for their son.

Despite the financial stress and medical complexities, the family is focused on what they’ve already achieved.

“We manifested for months that he would have that chance,” Tricia says of bringing Emmett home.

Today, Emmett still relies on an oxygen generator and a feeding tube, and Tricia says he “has a lot of other hurdles to work through too.”

On Nov. 18, he underwent a procedure to close a hole in his heart at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, and he is scheduled for laser eye surgery in December.

He has also been diagnosed with chronic lung disease, which Tricia notes is common for babies born as early as he was.

Even so, she is deeply grateful for how far he has come — and that this Thanksgiving, their celebration will be at home instead of in a hospital room.

“He’s really wanted to be here on this Earth with us,” she says.