Twenty two years after his sperm was frozen because he had leukaemia, a man has fathered a healthy baby girl.
In 1986 teenager Chris Biblis was 16 when he was struck down with leukaemia and underwent life-saving radiotherapy treatment for the disease.
As the radiotherapy would render him sterile, doctors took a sample of his sperm and placed it into cryogenic storage for future use, encouraged by his family even though there was no treatment for male infertility at the time.
After a record 22 years the sperm was defrosted and injected by scientists into an egg from wife Melodie and then implanted in her uterus - the result was baby Stella Biblis.
Now 38, Chris Biblis is celebrating the birth of a healthy baby daughter, born March 4, 2009 after a 22-year lapse between storage in April 1986 and conception in June 2008.
The event marks a world record, according to fertility specialists at the clinic where the procedure was carried out, Reproductive Endocrinology Associates of Charlotte (REACH) and they say it is a demonstration of how infertility treatment has improved in that sperm can remain viable for decades if they are preserved in liquid nitrogen.
Mr Biblis, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is now in remission, having been clinically disease-free for more than 20 years and says the baby represents a miracle.
The method used to create Stella was not in practice when Mr Biblis gave the sample in 1986 during his six-year battle against leukaemia and it was not until 1992 that intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) - by which scientists carefully select a healthy sperm cell and insert it into an egg in the laboratory - was successfully pioneered.
This technique carries an increased chance of conception beyond conventional IVF procedures, in which sperm and eggs are mixed in the laboratory to fertilise spontaneously, and was used because only 35% of Mr Biblis's sperm cells were deemed viable after thawing.