{"id":188219,"date":"2018-09-13T07:16:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T12:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=188219"},"modified":"2018-09-13T09:54:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T14:54:15","slug":"premature-22-weeks-thomas-thriving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-22-weeks-thomas-thriving\/","title":{"rendered":"Born at 22 weeks, Thomas is one of the youngest babies ever to survive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dan and Deborah FioRito already had eight children when they were expecting their youngest child Thomas. However, nothing could have prepared them for how Baby Thomas entered the world.\u00a0In a new short film from Pro-Life Champions, the FioRitos share their incredible story of Baby Thomas, who was born at just 22 weeks. At the time, he was the second youngest baby to be born in the United States.<\/p>\n

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When Deborah\u2019s water broke prematurely at 21 weeks and five days, the family was told that Baby Thomas would not be viable. Dan and Deborah were given discouraging statistics about the possibility of life-long disabilities for a premature baby born at 22 weeks, including blindness and immobility, and they were not offered any hope.<\/p>\n

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Screenshot: Shout My Story<\/p><\/div>\n

In this time of fear and uncertainty, one doctor offered to kill Baby Thomas in an abortion.<\/p>\n

READ: Born premature at 25 weeks, Winston’s story of survival is ‘miraculous’<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The story of what happened next, told in the short film \u201cThe Miracle Baby Thomas\u201d shows the family\u2019s great courage in choosing life for their premature son and Baby Thomas\u2019s journey to the thriving toddler he is today.<\/p>\n

His father, Dan, says, \u201cThomas is a testament to life and there\u2019s a reason that Thomas was born the way he is. I firmly believe it’s God’s will to affect others.\u201d<\/p>\n