Medical Minute: Premature Babies Beat The Odds

Gabriella Gastelum was born 15 weeks early, weighing just one pound.

Doctors warned she may never be able to have children. But against all odds, Gastelum not only survived, she went on to give birth to healthy twin girls.

Gastelum, now 43, was born with a brain bleed and required multiple shunts to drain fluid from her brain throughout her childhood.

Doctors told her the chances of her surviving, let alone having children, were extremely slim. "If you do, it's either you or the babies that are going to survive," Gastelum recalled being told.

But Gastelum was determined to have a family. After six rounds of IVF, she became pregnant with twins. At 30 weeks, Gastelum fell into a coma as fluid built up in her brain, threatening the pregnancy.

Doctors had to insert an external shunt to drain the fluid and stabilize her condition.

Two weeks later, Gastelum safely delivered the twins, Leia and Natalia, via C-section. One twin was even born with the old shunt catheter still in her hand.

Both babies spent over a month in the NICU, but are now happy, healthy, and home with their mother.

Gastelum's story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the remarkable advancements in modern medicine. Her twins' survival defies the odds and provides hope for other high-risk pregnancies.