VIDEO: Preemie Baby Had Almost No Chances of Survival but This is Her 12 Years Later

A child is a blessing, but you don’t just receive it, you have to fight for it. Before you can have a child you have to try for a while and then you have to deal with all the bad parts of pregnancy. And even if you do everything perfectly, this still doesn’t guarantee that your child survives and is healthy and happy.

According to usareturn.com, pregnancy is an exciting time though it can also be quite stressful depending on the health of the mother and her baby. On Oprah’s show in 2004, an incredible story aired about a mother-to-be named Tammy who had lupus.

As a result of her condition, Tammy had been through a miscarriage before and doctors were anxious about the health of her daughter. This story is an emotional one, so brace yourselves:

After an ultrasound at 15 weeks, doctors saw that the baby was not growing at a normal rate. At that point, Tammy was faced with a difficult choice: try to deliver the baby immediately or try to carry the baby up to 27 weeks and deliver then.

The chances of survival for the second option were below 5%, though they were better than the near 0% chance of the first option. Naturally, Tammy chose the second option.

Because the child was in such fragile condition, even safely carrying it to 27 weeks would prove to be a dangerous challenge. As a result, doctors insisted on checking up on Tammy and the baby every other day.

“I remember every day sitting in the car before we would walk into the clinic,” Tammy says. “You would take a big deep breath and you’d prepare yourself that there’s not going to be a heartbeat today.”

Still, every day the ultrasounds came back with a steady heartbeat. Tammy made it to that 27-week goal, at which the doctors forced delivery to try and save both the child and her mother.

Fortunately, Tammy and little baby Zoe were both ok, even if Zoe was born weighing only an incredible 10.8 ounces. Although Zoe was born safely, doctors were still not optimistic about her development outside of the womb given her fragile condition.

Still, as this story shows, Tammy and Zoe would not be counted out. Oprah checked in with the pair 12 years later and Skyped them into her show. Sure enough, baby Zoe was now a healthy and active 12-year-old girl who could explain her entire experience in her own words.

What she has to say is worth watching all the way through and should inspire anyone who feels like the odds are stacked against them.

Zoe’s story is truly blowing skeptical doctors away as her incredible recovery is unprecedented. As this story shows, statistics can’t predict everything and the human spirit is more resilient than we might think—especially in the presence of a mother’s love.

No one was expecting the child to survive and even less so to live this long and to be doing so incredibly well.