Callum was born 23 weeks and four days before his due date, weighing 1 pound, and spent 135 days in the NICU at Emory Decatur Hospital before going home, according to CBS Atlanta. The Decatur family is marking one year since he left the hospital, nearly a year and four months after his birth.
The milestone, first reported by CBS News Atlanta, marks a significant moment for Callum's family after his birth at 23 weeks and four days.
A Stay Built Around Four Months in Intensive Care
Callum's survival offers an encouraging example for families facing an extremely early birth.
Callum's 135-day stay in intensive care was a prolonged period before he finally went home.
Callum's NICU Care at Emory Decatur
Callum spent 135 days in the NICU at Emory Decatur Hospital. The same Maternity Center delivers over 3,000 newborns annually, ranking it among the top five busiest hospital maternity programs in Georgia, per data cited by the Morehouse School of Medicine.
How Georgia Coordinates Perinatal Care
Georgia is divided into six perinatal regions—Albany, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah—each with a regional perinatal center coordinating access to maternal, fetal, neonatal and infant health care, according to Emory School of Medicine.
Callum received care in the NICU after being born extremely early.
A Birth That Reflects Georgia's Prematurity Crisis
Callum's early arrival also lands within a state grappling with one of the nation's worst prematurity records. Georgia received an F grade on the March of Dimes 2025 Report Card after recording an 11.8% preterm birth rate in 2024, totaling 14,907 premature births and ranking the state 45th out of 52 states and territories, as reported by March of Dimes. The same March of Dimes data revealed stark racial disparities, with Black mothers in Georgia experiencing a 15.1% preterm birth rate compared with 10.3% for White mothers.
Nationally, babies born to mothers enrolled in Medicaid faced an 11.7% prematurity rate compared with 9.6% for those with private insurance — a gap that contributed to the country's own D+ grade on the 2025 report card. Set against those figures, Callum's survival and his family's one-year milestone stand out as a hard-won exception to odds that remain steep for extremely premature infants across Georgia and the country.
