{"id":258237,"date":"2026-05-04T20:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258237\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:45:07","slug":"parents-speak-out-about-baby-born-twice-after-likely-life-saving-surgery-during-pregnancy-in-orlando-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258237\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents speak out about baby born ‘twice,’ after likely life-saving surgery during pregnancy in Orlando, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. — A miracle baby was born “twice,” after undergoing a groundbreaking surgery to fix a rare and often deadly condition.<\/p>\n

The family of 8-month-old Cassian is grateful.<\/p>\n

“Not a lot of women get to have a C-section, but they’re still pregnant after,” Keishera Joubert said.<\/p>\n

At 19 weeks pregnant, the Joubert family received the devastating news that their second child had a rare condition called congenital high airway obstruction syndrome, also known as CHAOS.<\/p>\n

It’s characterized by a blockage of the airway, causing fluid to become trapped in an unborn baby’s lungs.<\/p>\n

“Their lungs get bigger, tighter, more pressure. It begins to squeeze the baby’s heart. Most of these babies die,” said Dr. Emanuel Vlastos, director of the Orlando Health Women’s Institute Fetal Care Center.<\/p>\n

“No one ever wants to hear that this baby has a very real chance of dying in the womb, not even making it to birth,” Keishera Joubert said.<\/p>\n

“We had about, I’d say, conservative to say 20 to 25% chance of positive outlook before our first surgery,” Greg Joubert said.<\/p>\n

After one procedure proved unsuccessful, Vlastos opted to try an extraordinary alternative.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: 6abc Action News reporter Sharifa Jackson shares miracle baby’s emotional story with Tamron Hall<\/a><\/p>\n

At 25 weeks, he partially delivered Cassian via cesarean section. His head and arms were outside of the womb, but still connected to the placenta, as the medical team worked to create an airway.<\/p>\n

“Then we placed baby back in the uterus; we closed the uterus, and mom stayed in the hospital until delivery,” Vlastos said.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time a surgery like this had been successful for a baby like Cassian.<\/p>\n

The medical team even took a photo of Cassian during the procedure.<\/p>\n

“It was a little, it was a glimpse of the future. It was a glimpse of a little baby boy that I would eventually take home from the hospital,” Keishera Joubert said.<\/p>\n

At 31 weeks, Joubert’s water broke, and Cassian came back into the world. And after 132 days in the neonatal intensive care unit, he was ready to go home.<\/p>\n

“What greater triumph was it then that we could finally take our baby home,” Keishera Joubert said.<\/p>\n

Cassian and his family are now preparing to celebrate his upcoming first birthday.<\/p>\n

“We’re planning a little, a little, just a small party for his, his first birthday anniversary of the surgery that saved his life. And then, of course, for his birth birthday, we’re gonna have another birthday bash for him there to celebrate full year,” Keishera Joubert said.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ABC News Internet Ventures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. — A miracle baby was born “twice,” after undergoing a groundbreaking surgery to fix a rare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111944,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-258237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-111944","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}