Miracle Baby Celebrates First Birthday
March 16, 2005 — -- Emmanuel Taran Hawkins, a happy, healthy baby, is celebrating his first birthday today. But it's nothing short of a miracle that he is here at all.
Emmanuel was born 14 weeks prematurely to a teenager who had lain in a coma for four months. Two days after his birth, his mother died in an Atlanta hospital.
"This baby is truly a miracle baby," said Dr. Bridget Cobb, who was Emmanuel's primary physician after his birth. "He was as sick as a baby can be without being dead."
His name means "God is with us," and for his grandmother, Emmanuel is a gift from God.
"God and Tara gave me Emmanuel so that I could go on," Nonnie Hawkins said on ABC News' "Good Morning America."
Tara was an 18-year-old freshman at Georgia Perimeter College when she was injured in an altercation with a young man in November 2003. She suffered a neck injury and was left brain-dead.
Doctors had no hope for Tara. They discovered the teen was 12 weeks pregnant, but that did not seem like much of a reason to hope. There have been very few cases in which a pregnant comatose woman has been able to carry a fetus to term.
Hawkins remembers getting the grim prognosis from a doctor.
"He says there is no way for the baby to survive in her," she said. "It is impossible. She had no prenatal care. She's in a coma. She's brain-dead. The body cannot function. The baby will not grow."
Hawkins heard him out, but refused to give up. "I looked him square in the eye and said, 'You're not God. God can do anything but fail.'"
In the months that followed, Tara remained on life support. Against all odds, the fetus continued to develop.
On March 16, 2004, a nurse's aide went to check on Tara and made a startling discovery -- Tara had given birth to a baby boy. Doctors had not realized Tara was in labor.
The baby weighed just 2 pounds, 9 ounces. He had heart and lung problems. A serious infection caused his kidneys to shut down.
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