 A Tennessee woman has given birth to a daughter who spent 24 years as a frozen embryo — making the baby the longest-frozen embryo to successfully come to birth. Emma Wren Gibson, delivered November 25 by Dr. Jeffrey Keenan, medical director of the National Embryo Donation Center, is the result of an embryo originally frozen on October 14, 1992. Emma's parents, Tina and Benjamin Gibson of eastern Tennessee, admit feeling surprised when they were told the exact age of the embryo thawed March 13 by Carol Sommerfelt, embryology lab director at the National Embryo Donation Center. I don’t care if it’s a world record or not,” Tina, 26, told CNN, after earlier noting that “This embryo and I could have been best friends.” 
 
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 “The NEDC has been privileged to work with the Gibsons to help them realize their dreams of becoming parents,” Dr. Jeffrey Keenan said of the faith-based organization. Tina, 26, spent her pregnancy carrying an embryo conceived just 1.5 years after her own birth. Sommerfelt said it is rewarding to see an embryo frozen for so long have a chance at life, especially because cryopreservation techniques have advanced since then. Her daughter, Emma, now holds the record for oldest frozen embryo to be born, according to University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library staff.  New Record: East TN Woman Gives Birth to Daughter who Spent 24 Years as Frozen Embryo 
 
 Contact: Mark Mellinger, National Embryo Donation Center, 865-696-1870, mmellinger@baby4me.net 
 
 
 
 KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 19, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- A woman living in East Tennessee has delivered the longest-frozen embryo to successfully come to birth. "We hope this story is a clarion call to all couples who have embryos in long-term storage to consider this life-affirming option for their embryos," said Keenan, the doctor who implanted the embryos in Tina Gibson's womb. “We hope this story is a clarion call to all couples who have embryos in long-term storage to consider this life-affirming option for their embryos.” 
 
 Embryo adoption has helped many couples become parents. Weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 20 inches long, Emma is a healthy baby girl.
– A 26-year-old woman in Tennessee has given birth to a baby girl, but this otherwise everyday event comes with a remarkable twist. The embryo that resulted in the birth was frozen 24 years ago, meaning mom and baby are in one sense nearly the same age. "This embryo and I could have been best friends," Tina Gibson of Clinton tells CNN. The National Embryo Donation Center, which facilitated the procedure, says in a release that last month's birth of Emma Wren Gibson sets the record for the longest-frozen embryo becoming a baby. An anonymous couple had the embryo frozen back in 1992, when Gibson was all of 18 months old, and the NEDC thawed the fertilized egg in March and implanted it in Gibson, reports USA Today. "Emma is such a sweet miracle,” says dad Benjamin Gibson, whose cystic fibrosis made it impossible for the couple to conceive. “I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago.” She's also healthy, having been born at 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and 20 inches long, per People. The process in which the embryo remained in cool storage all these years is called cryopreservation, and the process by which the Gibsons became parents is known as embryo adoption. The procedure is probably a record, as the NEDC says, but confirmation is tricky. "Identifying the oldest known embryo is simply an impossibility," IVF expert Dr. Zaher Merhi tells CNN, because American companies aren't required to report embryos' ages.