‘Miracle baby’ born at 328 grams finally goes home

Prematurely born with health issues, Lee Yu-ju now a healthy infant weighing 4 kilograms

Baby Lee Yu-ju lies in an intensive care unit at Daegu Catholic University Hospital in a photo taken by hospital staff to mark her 100th day after birth. (Daegu Catholic University Hospital via Yonhap)

A baby girl who weighed just 328 grams at birth has recently gone home after months of intensive medical care, a Daegu hospital said Monday.

Daegu Catholic University Hospital said the infant, Lee Yu-ju, was discharged last Friday after gaining the ability to breathe and be breastfed without medical assistance. She weighed about 4 kilograms a little over six months after birth, the hospital said. While her weight remains below the average for Korean infants of the same age, medical staff said she no longer suffers from the severe health problems she faced at birth.

Yu-ju was born on June 12 via emergency cesarean section at 26 weeks of gestation, far earlier than the typical pregnancy period of 38 to 40 weeks, according to the hospital.

Her extreme prematurity placed her at high risk of life-threatening complications and resulted in an exceptionally low birth weight.

The World Health Organization and other health bodies state the average newborn weight for full-term babies is around 3.2 kilograms for girls and 3.3 kilograms for boys.

“She was in such a critical condition at birth that we felt more fear than joy,” her parents were quoted as saying. “We are deeply grateful for the medical staff’s care and for Yu-ju’s will to live, and we hope she will grow up healthy without illness.”

In September, Yu-ju’s family and hospital staff marked the 100th day since her birth, an important milestone in Korean culture. Although she continued to face medical challenges after that point, her condition gradually stabilized, and staff congratulated her as she was finally able to leave the hospital.

A newborn’s chance of survival is closely linked to birth weight. Only 26.1 percent of babies born weighing under 500 grams survive to be discharged from hospital, according to a 2024 report on neonatal intensive care units by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Premature infants born before 28 weeks of gestation had a survival rate of 69.1 percent.

While the report did not specify survival rates for babies of Yu-ju’s exact weight, the survival of infants this small is considered extremely rare. By comparison, the world’s most premature baby listed by Guinness World Records weighed 285 grams at birth.