Herron Abney III, known as “Tripp,” has defied the odds since the day of his birth, when he was delivered at just 21 weeks weighing less than one pound.
So, when Tripp celebrated his first birthday, he was appropriately dressed in a Superman outfit.
“We’re amazed by him,” Tripp’s mom, Trashinda Gavin of Mobile, Alabama, told “Good Morning America.” “Our baby that was not going to survive is celebrating a 1-year birthday.”
Gavin was just five months pregnant with Tripp, her second biological child, when she went into preterm labor.
She was hospitalized for several days at USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile, where she said she and her medical team worked to delay labor for as long as possible.
But on July 12, 2023, just 21 weeks and three days into her pregnancy, Gavin gave birth to Tripp, who weighed just 15.3 ounces at birth.
“I remember his arms and legs moving and asking, ‘Is he OK?’ and [my husband] saying that he was OK,” Gavin recalled. “I told them I wanted them to do anything they could to save the baby.”