Baby makes Hawaii history

Reported by: Manolo Morales
Set Text Size SmallSet Text Size MediumSet Text Size LargeSet Text Size X-Large
Share
Updated: 8/12/2010 6:22 pm

His name is Dylan Helgen and he made history four months ago when he was born.

Dylan is Hawaii's first baby born from frozen unfertilized eggs.

All things considered, Dylan is just like any other baby.

He shows absolutely no signs of the stress mom and dad had to go through to bring him into this world.

"It was a lot of stress a lot of emotion and at one point we just stopped the whole process because we just couldn't handle the stress and emotion anymore but we just started back at it again and we had this miracle that came out of it and we're really really happy," said Dylan's mother, Elizabeth Helgen.

Elizabeth and Steve Helgen went to the Pacific In Vitro Fertilization to have a baby.

And due to bad timing, the clinic wound up having to freeze her eggs in order for the process to work.

The Helgens are the first of only four couples in Hawaii who chose to have this process done.

There are fewer than 200 babies in the country born from frozen unfertilized eggs.

It's possible now, thanks to a process called vitrification. It dehydrates the egg when it's frozen and hydrates it when it's thawed out and ready to fertilize.

The laboratory director, Thomas Huang said, "With that we're now able to recover well over 95 percent of the eggs that we freeze and a majority of them look very normal and we can then go ahead and fertilize those."

Doctors say the process will open up more options to those who want to conceive, such as women who want to defer their pregnancy at a later age and still maintain fertility.

It's also helpful to women diagnosed with cancer.

"They can freeze eggs prior to their chemotherapy because chemotherapy can destroy the ovaries and the ability for the ovaries to make eggs," said Dr. Philip Mcnamee of Pacific In Vitro Fertilization.

Doctors say the pregnancy rate with frozen eggs is not as high compared to using fresh eggs but it's improving and there seems to be no ill effects to how Dylan is progressing.

"He was smiling to us at three weeks and he was actually started to talking to us like cooing at six weeks so he's a little bit ahead of schedule right now," said Helgen.

Share
0 Comment(s)
Comments: Show | Hide

Here are the most recent story comments.View All

No comments yet!

Editors' Choice

Connect with KHON2

Apple iPhone App Google Android App Other Phones E-mail Alerts Facebook Fan Page Twitter News Feed Send Photos and Videos Submit News Tips
Inergize Digital This site is hosted and managed by Inergize Digital.
Mobile advertising for this site is available on Local Ad Buy.

Click for the BBB Business Review of this Television Stations & Broadcast Companies in Honolulu HI      © 2012 New Vision Television |  Site Map |  Terms of Use |  Privacy Statement |  FCC Compliance |  Employment |  Advertise on KHON2 |  Contact Us