TULARE, Calif. - A woman who weighs 37 pounds, stands 3 feet tall and uses a wheelchair has given birth to her first child.
Eloysa Vasquez, 38, suffers from Type 3 osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder that makes bones soft and brittle.
Her tiny, distorted body left little room for a fetus to grow and Vasquez suffered two miscarriages before doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital delivered her son, Timothy, by Cesarean section Jan. 24.
"We just took one day at a time. We had a lot of people praying for us. We just believed ... and here we have our son," Vasquez told The Fresno Bee for a story Thursday.
Baby Timothy weighed only 3 pounds, seven ounces because doctors had to deliver him eight weeks prematurely to protect the mother's fragile health. The child did not inherit his mother's genetic condition.
Vasquez' husband, Roy, said his wife's small stature can be deceiving: "She's a strong lady."
According to the university, only one in 25,000 to 50,000 births are to a mother with osteogenesis imperfecta, and even fewer involve moms with the severe form with which Vasquez was born.
Obstetrician James Smith estimated Timothy's birth was a one-in-a-million event.
