{"id":225963,"date":"2020-06-22T12:45:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T17:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=225963"},"modified":"2020-06-22T00:57:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T05:57:45","slug":"miracle-oldest-woman-trisomy-18-40th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/miracle-oldest-woman-trisomy-18-40th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"‘She’s a miracle’: Oldest woman in U.S. with Trisomy 18 celebrates 40th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Forty years ago, Ron and Sara Hayes were told their newborn baby girl, Megan, would not survive her infancy. She had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a condition considered by most doctors to be incompatible with life. But Megan proved them wrong and, amazingly, just celebrated her 40th birthday.\u00a0She is the oldest person in the United States living with Trisomy 18 and the second oldest in the world, according to Oklahoma City News 9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“When Megan was born, she immediately went to the NICU,” her mother, Sara Hayes, told the news outlet. “I didn’t get to see her at all until the next day and that was looking through a window.”<\/p>\n

Testing revealed that Megan had Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition is which a person has three copies of chromosome 18, and doctors told her parents “she [would] probably die within four months.”<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Compatible with life: Man with Trisomy 18 celebrates 18th birthday against all odds<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet Megan continued to thrive. Doctors believe this is because, unlike other patients with the condition, Megan was born with a healthy heart. She continues to surprise doctors, however, to this day.<\/p>\n

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