- Cat Gomez had a pretty standard twin pregnancy up until four months before her due date.
- One twin was measuring smaller, and they were born at 22 weeks.
When Cat Gomez takes her baby son for a walk, people stop to ask how many weeks old he is. At 8 pounds, 5 ounces, he looks like a newborn, but Oliver is more than 6 months old.
He's one of the most premature babies ever born in Britain and living proof of how medical advances are giving extremely early arrivals a chance at life.
Delivered at 22 weeks and three days gestation, Oliver weighed 14 ounces — lighter than a can of beans.
Doctors warned his parents that their micropreemie's chances of survival were as tiny as he was, but his will to live was enormous.
He is especially precious to Gomez and her fiancé, Tom Longstaff, because Oliver's identical twin brother, Joseph, lived for only four days.
"We had prepared ourselves for the worst, but Oliver had so much fight," Gomez told Insider. "We couldn't be prouder."
Scans showed one twin was smaller than the other
The couple from York, England, were surprised but delighted in fall to discover they were expecting twins.
The pregnancy was textbook until Gomez fell ill more than four months ahead of her due date. A scan showed Oliver was measuring smaller than his brother and their amniotic sac might be leaking. The mother was taken to a hospital that had two cots ready for neonatal intensive care, but the outlook was bleak.
Before 2019, British neonatal specialists did not recommend giving life-saving treatment to babies born before 23 weeks because that was considered beyond the "threshold of viability" for a fetus to live outside the womb.
Being born alive that early is also incredibly rare — just 0.15% of all live births in the UK are before 24 weeks.
"A specialist told us that the survival rate for a single pregnancy born at 22 weeks was really low. With them being twins, the chances were virtually nonexistent," Longstaff, 33, told Insider.
The twins were born 12 minutes apart
On January 13, Gomez went into labor at Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire. Oliver was born first, Joseph 12 minutes later.
Only one other baby, a girl named Stella Haigh, had been born so prematurely at the hospital, but she was 3 ounces heavier than Oliver and a single pregnancy.
"The boys were rushed to intensive care in plastic bags to keep them warm and moist," Gomez said. "I needed an operation, as my placenta would not detach and I was bleeding heavily. But I was terrified that I wouldn't get a chance to meet the boys alive because I was in the OR."
For the father, it was a shock to see them because the babies' skin was see-through.
"It was a miracle they were born alive, but there wasn't any false hope. We resolved to spend what time we could with them," Longstaff said.
While Oliver was the smaller twin, he had fewer complications. Joseph was 2 ounces heavier but had a grade-four brain bleed. Doctors said if he survived, he would have been severely disabled. His parents felt the most loving choice would be to withdraw his care.
"We were able to hold Joseph for the first and last time," Gomez said. "The hospital arranged a photographer for us, and they managed to move him into Oliver's incubator. We got a picture of them holding hands."
Joseph died in her arms soon after.
There was no time for grief. They needed to take care of Oliver.
The heartbroken parents had little time to grieve, focusing on changing "tea-bag-sized" diapers and feeding Oliver breast milk by syringe. When he was 1 week old, his mother said she had her "extra-special" first hug.
"When I'd held Joseph for the first time, he was dying," Gomez said. "It was nice to hold Oliver for a happy reason."
The tiny baby spent 132 days in the hospital, learning to breathe unaided and undergoing 12 blood transfusions. He also needed laser eye surgery and an operation for a bilateral hernia when he was 15 weeks old.
On May 25, nine days after his due date, Oliver was strong enough to go home. According to the British Association of Perinatal Medicine, one in three babies born before 24 weeks is disabled. But Oliver has few lasting health or developmental problems and recently came off oxygen.
"He has started smiling a lot more now — we're waiting for that first laugh," Longstaff said.
His parents' joy is tempered by thoughts of their lost child, Joseph.
"We've put off grieving — we have to present for Oliver," Longstaff said.
Because the boys were identical, the couple will get a glimpse at how Joseph would have looked as Oliver gets older. And while they are happy for Oliver's milestones, they are heartbroken over not having his twin around.
"I'll always wonder what Joseph's character would have been like," Gomez said.
The couple wants Oliver's story to give hope to other parents who have an extremely premature baby.
"We'll be forever grateful the recommendations changed to help babies below 23 weeks and doctors gave him a chance," Gomez said.