When Darnell Pinnock was born, he weighed just one pound and seven ounces. Delivered before he had reached seven months in the womb, far short of the typical nine-month pregnancy, his arrival in the world was marked by immediate struggle.

Before he was even a month old, doctors reportedly declared him dead not once, not twice, but five separate times, according to his mother, Sharon Douglas Pinnock. And, even after being brought back to life, she says, physicians warned that he was not receiving enough oxygen and urged her to prepare for the possibility of severe brain damage.

Yet, against those early predictions, this once-fragile newborn has grown into what his mother now calls living proof that adversity does not get the final word.