Remarkable One Pound ‘Micro-Preemie’ Baby Survives Journey To Shore

According to KSL-TV, one pound, eight ounce baby Haiden Morgan survived birth and a journey to shore on a Royal Caribbean cruise liner. The parents, Emily and Chase Morgan, were on board a seven-day cruise to celebrate three-year-old sister’s, Chloe, birthday. On the second night of the cruise, Emily started having contractions. She thought it was initially false labor because she had not experienced any prior complications in her pregnancy. She realized it wasn’t false labor when she saw blood.

“I knew the baby was coming.”

Emily went into labor on August 31 while still 14 hours from the scheduled stop at San Juan port. Once born, the doctors initially told Emily the baby was a miscarriage, and the staff did not allow her to see him.

Distraught with shock and grief, the family was told the hopeful news.

“About 45 minutes after I had delivered, the two doctors came back in and said the baby was still alive, however, they didn’t expect him to live very long.”

When Emily first saw her son, he was covered with wet birth blankets and a tiny oxygen mask covering his face. Emily wanted the staff to replace the wet towels with dry ones. The medical staff responded to Emily’s requests and made a temporary incubator using microwaved saline packets and dry blankets.

The ship’s captain discovered the baby was still alive when he contacted Emily the next morning. He told her the fastest they could get to the San Juan port was two hours.

The cruise liner captain shaved crucial hours off the travel time and arrived early at the previously scheduled port in San Juan. Black spots had started to appear on the baby showing he severe circulation loss. Doctors attributed the earlier arrival to baby Haiden’s survival.

While the odds were against him, baby Haiden’s lungs were fully developed which gave him a good prognosis. Doctors labeled the one pound baby a “micro-preemie.”

Emily shared details about remarkable baby Haiden.

“His feet are 2 inches long, and his hands are about an inch and a half. His body length is about 13 inches, so he’s very, very small.”

Once ported, Royal Caribbean sent translators to help assist the Morgan family while in Puerto Rico. After three days, the Morgan family finally arranged a jet to fly baby Haiden to a Miami hospital.

Baby Haiden will remain at the Miami neonatal intensive care unit for a month until stabilized. It is hopeful he will return at the end of October to a local hospital in Utah where he will stay until his due date, December 19.

[Photo Courtesy Morgan family via KLS-TV]