The medical group and the baby. (Snapshot/People's Daily Online) 

Recently, a cryopreserved embryo that had been frozen for 12 years successfully matured into a healthy baby at a hospital in Xi’an, in China’s northeast Shaanxi province.

In 2003, a patient with oviduct obstructive infertility came to the hospital hoping to become pregnant through IVF. In August of the same year, 12 embryos were successfully developed and the best one was picked for transplantation; that embryo grew into a baby that was born in May of the following year. The seven remaining viable embryos were frozen and preserved in liquid nitrogen.

In 2015, the same couple, now the parents of a 12-year-old, decided to try for a second child. Because of improved technology, the process was quite different from the way it was in 2003. Doctors nevertheless revived three embryos from that batch that had been frozen 12 years before.

In July 2015, the heartbeat of a baby from one of those embryos was first detected. And just several days ago, a healthy baby was born. This case sets a record in China for the embryo frozen the longest that resulted in a successful birth.