‘He is so full of life’: 1-year-old to be discharged after more than 400 days at Children’s of Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Barrett Brasfield has spent more than 400 days in the hospital and on Monday, he is expected to go home for the first time.

Carli Brasfield was 26 weeks along when she had an emergency C-section in June 2024. When Barrett was born, he weighed one pound. Lung issues and infections kept Barrett in the Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit (RNICU) at UAB for eight months, followed by four months in the NICU at Children’s of Alabama. By April, he was strong enough to get a trach.

“You’re in the fight of your life. It just starts from the day he was born and it was just what can we do to help him get home,” said Carli.

In the first year of his life, Barrett’s milestones were different from those of other newborns. Rather than their first bottle or first time crawling Carli and her husband, Roman celebrated the first time they got change his diaper and even hear him cry.

“Recently, he got to use a device called a Passy Muir Valve. And most parents don’t want to hear their baby cry, but this device allows us to hear him and the air to pass over his vocal cords. So to hear him cry for the first time was a huge day for us,” said Roman.

The Romans said they first believed Barrett would be home by the fall then by Christmas, but after getting sick, they knew they would just have to wait for the perfect time to take him home.

After 403 days, Barrett is expected to go home for the first time. His dad describes learning the news as surreal.

“It’ll be an amazing moment to take him home and cross the threshold of our home with him for the first time. We’ve had a nursery set up for months. It’s been great to see him in his room and experience that,” said Roman.

The couple says they are looking forward to simply being parents.

“He is so full of life. He laughs, he plays, he rolls, he is sitting up, he eats...he is so full of joy. You would never believe he has been in the hospital for 400+ days because he is just so full of life,” said Carli.

Barrett will be discharged with his trach, vent and G-tube, but he should grow out of them over the next few years with some surgeries.

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