Doubling Down: Dawsyn Derrico's COVID Battle Proves She's the World's Strongest Baby
Karen and Deon Derrico and their 11 adorable children welcomed TLC fans into their home with Doubling Down With the Derricos. The Derricos’ journey started off with Karen expecting her triplets and concluded with her delivering the babies prematurely. Unfortunately, the eldest of the babies, Awesome Dawsyn, had a heart condition that made many shed tears. To worsen things, the Doubling Down With the Derricos finale revealed Dawysn had COVID-19. Thankfully, Dawsyn survived the illness and her fighting spirit ensured she had a special place in everyone’s hearts!
The Derricos surely made viewers fall in love with them a little more with each episode. Karen, 40, and Deon, 45 were blessed with four sets of multiples. Two singletons, twins, quintuplets, and more twins were joined by the newest triplets, which took the Doubling Down With the Derricos family from 13 to 16 overnight. But if there’s something the Las Vegas family taught viewers on the TLC show, it was the fine act of balancing. Their fixed routines for everything from getting ready for school to going to bed were not disrupted, even when Karen was rushed to the hospital prematurely. Deon managed to give equal love to all his kids, ranging from ages 1-14. But Karen’s painful delivery triggered by an earthquake caused a domino effect in the Derrico household. The worry that came from having lost baby Carter just a year earlier doubled when Dawsyn was diagnosed with VSD or a hole in the heart condition. But if Karen’s quintuplets were miracle babies, Dawsyn turned out to be a superhero.
The Doubling Down With the Derricos mom gave birth to Dawsyn, De’Aren, and Dyver at just 24 weeks. A two-hour-long C-section ended with Deon calling himself a proud papa, but there was an underlying sadness to his joy because Dawsyn was not going to be home for a long time. The babies were born in July 2019, but it was December 2019 when Awesome Dawsyn finally came home the first time. The preemie baby required two heart surgeries and needed to gain enough weight to go through them. On top of that, lying on her back for all those months gave her a flathead. She also couldn’t be fed normally and required a feeding tube. She underwent a second surgery this year and returned to her loving siblings. But alas, Dawsyn had now contracted COVID-19, in spite of the family taking all the required precautions. A distressed Karen revealed, “She’s beat pneumonia, the flu, two heart surgeries, what is this now?” But Dawsyn proved she was the superstar of the star family by battling the coronavirus with her tiny but mighty strength.
A few days ago, a nasty rumor about the Doubling Down With the Derricos baby passing away circulated on the internet. But Deon immediately squashed it by tweeting, “Hello I would like for our supporters to all know the ugly rumors about Awesome Dawsyn aren’t true. Dawsyn is alive!” Not only is the baby alive and well, but she has won over all TLC viewers who tuned in to the show’s finale. “Awesome Dawsyn is stronger than the whole family. Cute little baby,” a Twitter user wrote to praise the Derrico heart baby. Many others spoke about how the little one has “a powerful testimony already at such a precious young age.”
The Doubling Down With the Derricos family was famous before their reality show due to the miraculous quintuplets. But Dawsyn battling the worst challenges a newborn could go through, one after the other, has given the family yet another survival story to be proud of. Fans feel the show ended too soon. But wouldn’t it be perfect if there’s a spin-off based entirely on the real-life superhero Dawysn?
Source: @deonderrico, @juneydee123, @damitatinsley1