{"id":266238,"date":"2022-04-16T09:04:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T14:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=266238"},"modified":"2022-04-14T17:08:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T22:08:49","slug":"premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound already had a lot of obstacles to overcome. For little Harper Jacobo, those obstacles also included a diagnosis of esophageal atresia, a defect in which the esophagus is not formed properly. But with a Colorado hospital’s groundbreaking surgery using magnets, baby Harper is now able to thrive.<\/p>\n

Harper and her twin sister, Gabriella, were high-risk patients when they were born prematurely in Alliance, Nebraska, so doctors transferred them to the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, where\u00a0Harper’s esophageal atresia was discovered. In her case, her esophagus and stomach did not connect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Steven Rothenberg, chief of pediatric surgery, told KTLA<\/a>, “I believe Harper is the smallest baby ever to be born, with this pure Esophageal Atresia, to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors used magnets to repair Harper’s esophagus. And according to Rocky Mountain Hospital, she’s the first baby to undergo the surgery weighing less than a pound. \u201cThe gap was so great, it was hard to get the two ends together,\u201d Rothenberg said, adding that the procedure worked “extremely well.”<\/p>\n

Esophageal atresia is not often diagnosed prenatally, so children with it are not often targeted for abortion. However, one of the most notorious cases of esophageal atresia ended in tragedy.<\/p>\n

READ:<\/strong>\u00a0Ohio physicians perform complex surgery to save preborn baby boy\u2019s life<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Down Syndrome Prenatal Testing reports<\/a>\u00a0that in 1982 a baby in Bloomington, Indiana, was born with esophageal atresia and Down syndrome. Though even then, esophageal atresia could be relatively easily fixed, the doctor told the parents they should just let their baby die.<\/p>\n

The baby, named Baby Doe<\/a>, was given a death sentence purely due to the ableism of his doctor, Walter Owens. Even if the surgery was successful, Owens argued “[t]hat it would still be a mongoloid, a Down\u2019s syndrome child with all the problems that even the best of them have.” He added his belief “that there are things that are worse than having a child die. And one of them is that it might live.” With his parents’ permission and approval, Baby Doe was abandoned and left to slowly starve. The cause of death was chemical pneumonia, due to the regurgitation of his own stomach acid.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, neither of the Jacobo twins had to fear such an awful fate.<\/p>\n

Gabriella was able to go home months before Harper was, but Harper spent a year in the hospital. It’s something parents Kayla Hatch and Victor Jacobo will never forget. \u201cTo see them breathing, kicking \u2026 it\u2019s just truly awesome. We just can\u2019t thank everyone enough for being there and helping us through these trying times,” Jacobo said, with Hatch adding, \u201cFor the rest of my life, I\u2019m going to be thanking them.”<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound already had a lot of obstacles to overcome. For little Harper Jacobo, those obstacles also included a diagnosis of esophageal atresia, a defect in which the esophagus is not formed properly. But with a Colorado hospital’s groundbreaking surgery using magnets, baby Harper is now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":266346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,9455,3473],"tags":[16867,10710,16865,7285,16866,12097],"yoast_head":"\nPreemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/premature.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Dr. Steven Rothenberg\",\"esophageal atresia\",\"Harper Jacobo\",\"premature baby\",\"Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children\",\"surgery\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Human Interest\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\",\"name\":\"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery","description":"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery","og_description":"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/premature.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery","datePublished":"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/"},"wordCount":477,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Dr. Steven Rothenberg","esophageal atresia","Harper Jacobo","premature baby","Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children","surgery"],"articleSection":["Analysis","Human Interest","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/","name":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-16T14:04:55+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-14T22:08:49+00:00","description":"A baby born at 23 weeks gestation weighing just one pound had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but it was a groundbreaking surgery that saved her life.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/premature-baby-survives-groundbreaking-surgery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Preemie with esophageal defect survives after groundbreaking surgery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266238"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266386,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266238\/revisions\/266386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}