The miracle baby

Derick Hall today with his mother Stacy

Standing tall at 6ft 3in, and weighing an impressive 256 pounds, Derick Hall has come a long way in his 22 years. The outside linebacker was born four months prematurely without a heartbeat, weighing a tiny two pounds and one ounce, with a bleed on the brain. After a week on life support, the prognosis wasn’t favorable and doctors believed he’d remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Doctors told his mother Stacy to sign a paper and “to let life take its course.” Thankfully she refused. Her tiny baby spent five months in NICU before finally going home. Her son flourished. He began his football career with flag football and there was no holding him back. The future Seattle Seahawks player has just been drafted to play professionally and will now be able to show his physical and mental prowess on the field and demonstrate to millions how life, no matter how precarious, is always worth fighting for. On March 19, 2001, Hall was born without a heartbeat before he was resuscitated. And yet, doctors gave his parents a grim prediction of what they thought his future looked like. His mother continues “They said he’d never be able to walk or be able to talk. They said he’d just be a vegetable. He’d be 85 percent mentally retarded. He wouldn’t have any quality of life. They said, ‘We shouldn’t try to save this baby.” Stacy said she didn’t know if she could afford to raise a medically-fragile child. But, she said, “We just trusted God wholeheartedly, and look what we’ve got now.”

Derick in his Auburn uniform

Derick himself says “Going through all that trauma at a young age, going through breathing machines and treatments and stuff like that, getting through all of that every year at a young age really put me in a position to learn how to fight, compete, and face adversity.” Stacy again recalls “I told him you have to push through it and fight through it. He loved football.” He played American football in High School at Gulfport, Mississippi, played at College level at Auburn and got drafted with the Seattle Seahawks. A miracle baby whose mother never gave up. Congratulations Derick !