A baby has been born from an embryo that was initially frozen all the way back in October 1992, breaking a record previously held by her older sister.
CNN reports that Molly Gibson, the one-month-old baby born from the embryo, was born to parents Tina and Ben of Tennessee this October, 27 years after the embryo was frozen. This means she is now believed to be the longest-frozen embryo to ever be birthed, the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library staff claim. The previous record was held by her sister Emma, who was born in 2017 from a 24-year-old embryo.
"When Tina and Ben returned for their sibling transfer, I was thrilled that the remaining two embryos from the donor that resulted in Emma Wren’s birth survived the thaw and developed into two very good quality embryos for their transfer," National Embryo Donation Center lab director and embryologist Carol Sommerfelt told Good Morning America. "This definitely reflects on the technology used all those years ago and its ability to preserve the embryos for future use under an indefinite time frame."
The embryo Molly was born from is only two years younger than her mother Tina, who is 29. "With Emma, we were just so smitten to have a baby," Tina told CNN. "With Molly, we're the same way. It's just kind of funny—here we go again with another world record."
