Utah County boy beats the odds, survives first year of life

ALPINE — He was considered a miracle the day he was born, and a year later, little Aaron Peterson is still beating the odds.

To hear his mother say it, the fragile, 1-year-old milestone baby is "a little piece of heaven."

And in the midst of all the buzzing and humming sounds coming from various medical equipment flowing in and out of his 14-pound body, Aaron seems to gaze past all his worldly cares like he knows his life won't be long, but he'll take whatever he can get.

Aaron was the ninth child born to Rebekah and William Peterson and up until the first ultrasound, everything seemed to be going just as expected — just as it had with the previous eight healthy babies born into the family. But doctors told them that baby No. 9 would be born with Trisomy 18, a condition caused by a chromosomal defect making him "incompatible with life," if he was born at all.

"It felt like the whole world stopped," Rebekah said Monday. "You don't have a child to bury it."

From that point on, the expectant mother kept her composure in public but wept silently for a child she knew would have serious challenges in life. There was at least one instance when she wished things were different, that her "special spirit" was anything but special. But Rebekah was somehow able to turn her anxiety into an intense yearning for information, a desire to help her baby survive.

Information became the fuel that kept her going, as she met all kinds of people on the Internet who had been through some of the same circumstances and as she learned more about what is also called Edwards Syndrome, which affects 1 in 3,000 babies born every year.

Knowledge not only helps the family cope with the experience, but has earned Rebekah the respect of many doctors and nurses who have gotten to know Aaron's determined will to live.

Most doctors, though not Rebekah's, pressure parents of Trisomy 18 babies to abort, as they feel the child will likely not survive. Of those who chose to try to carry the babies to term, statistics reveal that only 50 percent will hold a live baby. Of those babies born alive, half will die in the first two weeks, usually in the first day or two. And only 5 to 10 percent live to their first birthday.