Premature baby was discharged from hospital 9 months after his birth weighing 390 grams

Alicia Zarate knew something was wrong during her pregnancy when her husband Jonathan played the song “Higher” by the rock band Creed and her unborn son did not respond with movements in her stomach.

“On the way to work, I always listened to it,” Alicia Zarate said. “He woke up and started fluttering in my stomach. I noticed that I didn't feel the movement as much anymore. I told him (Jonathan) to play the song, 'If it doesn't flutter, we'll go to the doctor.' Since it didn't flutter, we went to the doctor and the next day he was delivered.”

Nathan Zarate, who was born on November 21 last year after just 25 weeks in the womb, was finally able to go home on Wednesday after nine months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge.

Nathan weighed less than 1 pound at birth – 14.3 ounces, to be exact. He was born two days before Thanksgiving and spent his first Christmas, Easter, and the Fourth of July in the hospital.

Surrounded by television cameras and other media, Alicia and Jonathan Zarate wheeled him out of the neonatal intensive care unit on Wednesday while two dozen hospital staff serenaded him.

“It's incredible,” said Alicia Zarate. “I never thought I would live to see this. It's been a long journey with many ups and downs. We did it.”

“We tried to give him as much love and support as possible,” said Jonathan Zarate. “It was definitely a difficult journey.”

Alicia said she was “frightened and horrified” when doctors told her Nathan would have to be born early.

“Even though I wasn’t ready, I had to trust in God’s plan and the doctors and stay positive,” she said.

Jonathan said Nathan was “about the size of a Coke can” at birth.

“He was only the size of my hand,” he said. “It was incredible. He went from 400 grams to 6.3 kilograms.”

Alicia, for her part, thought that his head looked like a kiwi fruit because of its small size.

Dr. Michael Cappello, a neonatologist and vice chairman of pediatrics at the hospital, said babies like Nathan are “the reason we get into this field.”

“It's very heartwarming and gratifying,” Cappello said. “Nathan was an extremely premature baby. He needed a lot of support and was a really sick guy in the beginning. He's done great. Now he's thriving, smiling and laughing. We're all very proud of what we've done, but we're especially proud of him.”

Nathan underwent surgery to correct a heart defect, battled pneumonia and eye damage, and had a tracheal tube placed to help him breathe, officials said.

The Zarates, who live in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood, spent a month preparing for Nathan's return home, including installing the necessary electrical equipment to perform the tracheostomy until he can breathe fully on his own, Alicia Zarate said.

“There were times when we called him 'the grumpy old man,' but since he had his tracheostomy, he's been as happy as can be. He's been able to develop as normally as he can,” she said. “He's been lively from day one. He lets us know when he's not feeling so good. Overall, he's content.”

“He’s a fighter,” Jonathan said.

The family chose Nathan as his name because it means “gift from God,” Alicia Zarate said. His courage and resilience earned him the nickname “Nate the Great,” she added, and hospital staff called him the “mayor of the NICU.”

In March, around the time he was originally supposed to be born, the Zarates finally realized that Nate was going to be OK.

“It took a while,” said Jonathan Zarate. “There were a lot of scary nights.”

The hospital staff “has done an above-average job from day one,” said Alicia Zarate.

“They weren't just looking out for Nathan, they were looking out for us,” she said. “It got really difficult. It was great to have them there.”

The Zarates will receive home care for a set amount of time each day, Alicia said. “We still have a long way to go,” she said. “It's getting better now.”

While Nathan was hospitalized, Alicia, who works as a teacher, was able to take her maternity leave, she said. She was recently able to extend it for “child-rearing years.”

Currently, Nathan is “mostly breathing on his own,” Cappello said. “He will be going to a follow-up clinic. He's doing very well overall. Hopefully this trajectory continues and he develops fully as a healthy child.”

At about 405 grams, Nathan weighed less than the usual minimum weight of 500 grams in the neonatal intensive care unit at birth, but he was neither the smallest nor the most premature baby in the 54-bed unit, Cappello said.

“We had smaller and younger children,” he said. “We tell parents that there is always hope. You always want to keep looking forward.”