NEED TO KNOW
- In September 2024, a kindergarten teacher gave birth to a baby boy who weighed 1 lb., 1 oz.
- Over his first month and a half of life, baby Gabriel’s oxygen levels plummeted so much that he almost died three times
- Finally, after 350 days in the NICU, he was able to go home — and his mom tells PEOPLE she couldn’t be happier
Nearly a year after giving birth to a baby boy who was born weighing just over 1 lb., his parents were finally able to bring him home from the hospital.
Their preemie almost died multiple times while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and still requires round-the-clock care, so the couple relocated from Tennessee to Mississippi to be closer to medical facilities — but they say upending their lives was well worth the sacrifice.
“We took him on his first walk around the neighborhood yesterday and I cried the entire time,” mom Caroline Golden, 27, tells PEOPLE of her son Gabriel, whom she shares with husband Garreth Golden, 31.
“It’s the stuff you dream of — the little things. Waking up, making your coffee and then cuddling your baby,” the first-time mom adds. “Things that most people just take for granted.”
The kindergarten teacher was just 7 weeks pregnant when she started bleeding while on a family vacation.
Caroline didn’t miscarry, but seven weeks later she started bleeding again. She was rushed to the ER and learned that she had a subchorionic hematoma, which is when blood pools under a membrane that connects a mom’s uterine wall to her baby’s amniotic sac, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Her doctor told her to come in for bi-weekly ultrasounds, but the next week she started bleeding again. This time, it never stopped and a high-risk obstetrician explained that her placenta wasn’t properly attached to her uterus because of the hematoma.
At 16 weeks, she was put on bed rest and ended up being hospitalized at 22 weeks. Her medical team at the Jackson, Tenn., hospital hoped she wouldn’t go into labor for another month or two, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Just five days later, she started having painful contractions. “I was in an uncontrollable amount of pain and they put me on the monitor. They were losing Gabriel’s heartbeat,” recalls Caroline, who immediately underwent an emergency C-section on the evening of Sept. 30, 2024.
She and her husband had previously been told about the slim survival rates of babies born at 22 weeks. Remembering this daunting information, Caroline was being put under anesthesia when she thought, “I’m not going to get to meet my baby before he passes away.”
Gabriel was born weighing a mere 17 oz. and was immediately put on a breathing tube because his lungs were underdeveloped. The family was told he wouldn’t survive the night and was even given a tour of the bereavement room.
The parents said a final prayer over their baby that evening, but fortunately, the next morning, Gabriel was still alive, which their doctor called a “miracle.”
However, while he continued to improve for the next 10 days, the family’s journey was far from over.
In his first month and a half of life, Gabriel’s oxygen levels plummeted so much that he almost died three times and at one point, Caroline remembers seeing her tiny son “blue, looking lifeless.”
“The good Lord and the good Lord only is how we made it,” says Caroline of navigating that traumatic time.
By December, the Goldens learned their son would have to be transferred to another hospital that was better equipped to deal with his breathing issues.
Although his health continued to improve, Gabriel was diagnosed with chronic lung disease and by April 2025, Caroline and Garreth were informed that their son needed a tracheostomy to live.
To better care for their son, the Goldens decided to move in with Garreth’s mom, whose Mississippi home wasn’t far from the Memphis hospital. Gabriel’s trach was implanted the next month.
“Taking care of babies like Gabriel, who have developed chronic lung disease from their extreme prematurity, is one of the greatest challenges and one of the greatest joys in medicine,” Dr. Meaghan Ransom, part of Gabriel’s care team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells PEOPLE in a statement. “We walk step by step with parents in navigating the decision for tracheostomy.”
By mid-August, the family had a big milestone to celebrate: moving into their new home with their baby, who had finally graduated from the NICU.
“You forget that he’s yours when they’re there for so long,” says Caroline of her son’s 350-day NICU stay. “It’s overwhelming,” she says of Gabriel’s homecoming, “but in all of the best ways.”
More than a month in, the family of three has settled into a routine. They plan to just enjoy their time together until January, when Garreth plans to start working again. Meanwhile, Caroline will stay home with her son — who now weighs 16 lbs. — for the foreseeable future.
The parents have every hope that Gabriel will no longer need a trach one day, as does his doctor.
“We have a lot of hope that babies born early can grow and thrive, with lung development continuing through childhood,” says Ransom.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Caroline and Garreth have a second, equally important wish.
The new mom says she wants her son to grow up knowing that he is capable of doing anything that he wants to do, as long as he holds onto his faith.
She adds, “I just hope that he understands how proud we are of him.”
Read the full article here
